Tim Sweeney (52), the founder and boss of Epic Games (Fortnite), has a fortune in the billions, but still thinks that Twitter is just too elitist.
Which system is it? Like many social networks, Twitter had a verification system that allowed well-known users to confirm their identity.
The verification badge, the so-called blue tick, was primarily intended for Twitter users whose identity could be used to spread lies or fake news: politicians, news agencies and celebrities, including numerous content creators.
There’s trouble about the blue tick on Twitter
What is the problem with the system? Critics of the verification system on Twitter complain that the blue tick is reserved for certain people and see it as a kind of favoritism.
With the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk, there was new excitement about the blue ticks: First, Twitter Blue introduced a payment system with which users could easily purchase the badge, which led to numerous real-looking fake accounts.
Then Elon Musk announced that he would remove the old “legacy verifications”, which was implemented from April 20th, but has now been partially reversed. The back-and-forth caused a lot of confusion and numerous discussions over the weekend.
Tim Sweeney, head of Epic Games, now also joined the discussion about verification. On April 22, he launched a series of tweets in response to the hashtag #BlockTheBlue. The hashtag was a suggestion to simply block users willing to pay monthly for verification.
Tim Sweeny is partly responsible for the Unreal Engine, which is the basis of successful games like Fortnite.
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Epic boss feels left out of ‘cool kids’
What does Tim Sweeney have to say? The Epic CEO took issue with the #BlockTheBlue campaign, explaining that the users behind it were “losers and thugs,” the “cool kids” who “used nerds” had already expelled from school.
He’s been criticizing the “elitist” old system since 2018, Sweeny explained, sharing one of his own tweets from 2020. At the time, he wrote that he didn’t want to be verified as long as the process was reserved for certain people.
Sweeney, whose fortune is said to be close to $10 billion according to Bloomberg, went on to say that an online community should be a meritocracy that only rewards performance. Instead, Twitter used its verification system to favor supposedly notable elites.
The 52-year-old also claimed Twitter employees used the old system to enrich themselves, trading verifications for favors. We have included the beginning of the thread here:
Sweeney isn’t so particular about the truth
How did that go down? Not very well. In the comments, numerous Twitter users tried to explain to Sweeney why his assessment of the old verification system was not entirely accurate.
The system was by no means reserved exclusively for the elite, and local reporters with rather low incomes could have used it to lend credibility to their reporting. Others wondered why a 52-year-old still frets about school cliques.
Below some of Sweeney’s tweets, users provided additional context. The claim that the old system had nothing to do with confirming identity with official documents has been refuted.
How did Sweeney react? He took the time to answer a few comments and relented. He finally explained that the best solution is probably a mixture of the old and the new system: identities should be verified, but the process should be open to everyone and ideally even free (via Twitter).
Tim Sweeney not only has something to complain about on Twitter, he recently criticized Epic’s competitor Steam in a telephone call. Because he also feels excluded from Steam, which would take advantage of their larger market share. You can read more about it here:
Epic Games boss rants about Steam – Criticizing the platform’s multiplayer capabilities