Right. Musk is continuing to use the word "verification," but he's killing off the identity verification procedures. Instead, he's asking people to pay for the privilege of having their tweets boosted in the algorithm (and getting a useless blue dot—so-called "verification"), while anyone who doesn't pay will essentially be shadowbanned, i.e. shoved to the bottom of the algorithm (starting today). So it's not as if richer people will be funding the platform for everyone to enjoy. It's not a tax for the common good. The problem, rather, is that only paying customers will have an audience. Musk is charging a personal privilege fee. Twitter's free product will be useless. And people who previously relied on the verified identity badge will no longer have that safeguard. I could afford to swing $8/month for a valuable service, but I won't pay it to Musk's Twitter—in part because I don't want to participate in an information/discussion ecosystem where my tweets are treated as if they matter more than my friends'/colleagues' tweets just because I have $8 and they don't. I'd just be paying to hear myself talk.