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Tesla CEO Elon Musk poses on the red carpet of the Axel Springer Award 2020 on December 01, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images)Getty Images

A new report from Mashables Matt Binder says that more than half of Twitter Blues earlier subscribers are no longer subscribed at all. 54% of the 150,000 users who signed up when Elons new Twitter Blue launched in November are no longer subscribing.

With advertising way, way down, Musks plan has always been to drive up subscriptions, mainly with the draw of a verified blue check that is for say for $8-11 a month, which he took away from everyone who had it for free, verified under the old system. Thats except for celebrities and public figures with over a million followers, where hes just giving it to them to ensure there remains some appearance of validity to the system.

Now, a user has suggested that Musk should open up Twitter Blue to allow for gifted subscriptions, to which he replied Ok. A short statement, perhaps, but one that does seem somewhat inevitable. If you cant get people to sign up on their own, let Blue superfans start throwing out gifted subscriptions to 1, 5, 10 of their friends if they want.

Of course this raisesobvious questions. The signature hallmark of the Twitter Blue system is the blue check. So first, this essentially destroys Musks argument that the new blue check is better for fighting bots because you have to have a credit card attached to your account. Now, you just needa friend with a credit card.

Then, the second thing. If gifting a Twitter Blue subscription didnt just give your friends access to the features of the system like longer video uploads and tweet editing, but also gave them a blue check, which many current users no longer want, given its association with Musk and his acolytes, it feels like a almost a weaponization of the checkmark. Someone making fun of you for your blue check? Troll them with a sub that gives them one too.

You cannot really have the option to turn off the check because Musk wants it advertised that loads of Twitter users are subscribing to Blue (loads are not, despite what the first ten people in your replies may indicate). I feel like the only solution here would be toallow people to reject gifted subscriptions? This runs counter to the idea of places where gifted subscriptions work and are universally viewed as good in places like Twitch and Discord. This all circles back around to Musk forcing the check mark as a forced public indicator of your subscription, along with auto-surfacing your replies, when really all you may want is better video, lists and editing capabilities. Thats a gifted sub I would have no problem accepting, if it was just that. But I very much do not want to be a Twitter Blue Guy and I dont think most other people want that, either.

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Ive been writing about video games, television and movies for Forbes for over 10 years, and you may have seen my reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. I cover all manner of console and PC games, but if its about looting or shooting, Im definitely there. If Im watching something, its usually science fiction, horror or superheroic. Im also a regular on IGNs Fireteam Chat podcast and have published five sci-fi novels.

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Elon Musk Threatens To Implement Gifted Twitter Blue Subscriptions - Forbes