Tumblr Has Been Trolling Twitter While Elon Musk Fears Bankruptcy Is On The Horizon
I think we all knew Twitter’s inevitable downfall would be coming soon after Elon Musk brought his permanent Scream mask face to the party to ruin it for everyone. After he purchased Twitter for the low, low price of $44 billion, he has been acting like the dorky kid who takes revenge on his former bullies every day (cue Kathy Griffin doing a new photoshoot with his head instead). And to add insult to injury, Tumblr is trolling Twitter by also selling $8 blue check marks, but theirs are more like blue middle fingers aimed directly at Elon.
One of Twitter’s most coveted claims to fame is when someone of note receives a blue check mark to verify they are who they say they are. And it’s also a way to weed out any unimportant folks who don’t have enough followers to obtain one (Like me). Now anyone can be verified for $8, however Twitter keeps it petty by letting EVERYONE know the user paid for their blue checks because Elon Musk is a dick.
welcome to the new blue tick Twitter. There are now two blue ticks, so you can tell who’s paying $8 or not 🙃 pic.twitter.com/ALzMSRrztq
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) November 9, 2022
So in response, The Verge reports Tumblr is raising the bar by mocking Twitter and offering its followers a blue check, but theirs is just for shits and giggles since it does nothing to bolster the user’s status on the site. And this comes after Tumblr already announced that it’s accepting nudity (just not sex stuff) on its platform again.
The Tumblr Important Blue Internet Checkmark is the latest of a few joke items Tumblr sells on its web store, and it does about what you’d expect: add a blue check — actually two blue checks — next to a blog of your choice. In case it’s not 100 percent clear, this is a complete vanity purchase that confers no special status and requires nothing except paying around $8.
Touché, Tumblr. And Bravo! This is the level of petty I can get behind but unfortunately, Elon isn’t in the mood for jokes right now. According to Reuters, two top Twitter execs, Yoel Roth and Lea Kissner, joined hands and jumped ship like Jack and Rose as Twitter continues to sink. And Elon has reportedly hinted that bankruptcy is a possibility:
The billionaire on his first mass call with employees said that he could not rule out bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported, two weeks after buying it for $44 billion – a deal that credit experts say has left Twitter’s finances in a precarious position.
Earlier in the day, in his first company-wide email, Musk warned that Twitter would not be able to “survive the upcoming economic downturn” if it fails to boost subscription revenue to offset falling advertising income, three people who have seen the message told Reuters.
So if Tumblr gets its way, it may become the new Twitter, and Twitter will become the new Tumblr, which ultimately faced the same fate. Someone get Alanis Morrisette to serenade Elon with a downtempo version of Ironic while wearing a t-shirt with Tumblr’s logo on it.
Pic: Tumblr