How Elon Musk Got Tangled Up in Blue

Twitter Blue, a revamped subscription service that let users buy verified badges, was the first big test for the platform’s new owner. It didn’t go well.

By Nov. 9, 2022, anxiety was high among the Twitter employees gathered at the company’s San Francisco headquarters. They had spent part of that morning trying to gently explain to their new boss, Elon Musk, that the service they had just launched was dangerous.

Twitter Blue, a subscription service that now allowed users to buy one of the platform's coveted verified badges, had been live for only a few hours when Mr. Musk — who had bought the company two weeks earlier and would later rename it X — stepped out of the glass-walled conference room with views of San Francisco City Hall to speak with an assistant. With Mr. Musk out of earshot, the welcoming, deferential mood in the room immediately changed. The employees knew that users relied on the verified check marks to ensure that information on the platform — including bus times or hurricane evacuation orders or a pop star’s musings — was indeed real.

“All these other people around the world rely on a label of some kind, a badge of some kind, to tell them this is the real account to listen to,” said Esther Crawford, a director of product management, according to three people in attendance. “And they will be hijacked.”

Christian Dowell, a company lawyer, chimed in, suggesting that accounts that bought the badges could start a harassment campaign, using the credibility of verification to, for instance, direct SWAT teams to people’s homes. “Somebody could die, actually,” he said.

When Mr. Musk re-entered the room, the chatter died. No one had expected him to be with them for so long on launch day, but he picked through the snacks — at one point eating half a doughnut in a single bite. He encouraged employees who raised concerns to be “adventurous.”

“We’re going to be shooting from the hip in real time,” Mr. Musk said, fashioning his hands into a pair of finger guns.