Elon Musk admitted that he realized one thing too late
Musk has his humble moments.
Tesla (TSLA) – Get Free Report and Twitter CEO Elon Musk is known for a lot of things, but being humble is typically not one of them.
However, Musk certainly has had his moments from time to time, and he had one of them over the weekend on Twitter with a past tweet from a fellow CEO who pointed out something Musk clearly needed to hear.
Tim Sweeney, the CEO and founder of Epic Games, tweeted about Twitter verification back in Feb. 2020, years before Musk would come to be associated with the social media company.
Credit to Tim Sweeney for realizing this before me https://t.co/92LUkaOEFz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023
“I don’t want to be verified unless the verification process is opened up to everyone on equal terms. Right now it’s a system for doling our favors to friends of Twitter and for using revocation to punish people Twitter doesn’t like,” Sweeney wrote.
“Credit to Tim Sweeney for realizing this before me,” Musk wrote, sharing the original tweet.
Seeing the old tweet resurfaced, Sweeney added a new comment in support of Musk’s moves on the social media platform.
Twitter only verifying elites and friends of Twitter employees was wrong. Democratizing verification for $8 was good. Treating everyone the same is principled. What kind of company sells a product but gives it to elites for free? That's just weird thing to do. https://t.co/KSRItcc26l
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 2, 2023
Musk has been under constant scrutiny for his changes to Twitter’s verification system since announcing that the check marks would be locked behind the Twitter Blue subscription, which is $8 a month.
The new system has drawn celebrity criticism as well, most recently from Mark Cuban, who asked Musk on Twitter on Mar. 30 why he was losing users despite paying for the subscription service. Musk has yet to give Cuban an answer.