Twitter has suspended its $8 blue tick subscription plan that it had launched earlier this week after fake accounts on the social media platform increased, Reuters reported on Friday.
The world’s richest person Elon Musk, who took over Twitter last month, had announced on November 2 that the social media platform will charge users $8, or about Rs 644, every month for displaying the blue tick next to account name of the users indicating that the profile is verified.
The blue tick feature, was earlier free of cost and was given to those accounts that are prone to be impersonated such as those of celebrities, politicians and journalists. The system, which included filing an application form, was introduced in 2009 after the social media platform faced a lawsuit, accusing it of not doing enough to prevent imposter accounts.
Musk had said that users who pay for the blue tick would get some advantages over others, including priority in replies, mentions and searches that are “essential to defeat spam/scam”, ability to post long videos as well as audios. They would also see half as many advertisements.
However, since the plan rolled was rolled out, users on Twitter had pointed out the growing number of fake accounts.
One account posing as pharma giant Eli Lilly & Co. tweeted that insulin was now free, forcing the company to issue an apology, according to Bloomberg.
“We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account,” the company had said, reiterating the name of its Twitter handles to users.
Purported accounts in the name of Musk-owned firms Tesla and Space X were also spotted on the social media platform.
On Friday, Twitter said that it has added an “Official” label to some accounts to combat impersonation.
On the same day, Musk also warned Twitter users engaging in impersonation without specifying it as a “parody” account in their title would be permanently suspended without a warning.
“To be more precise, accounts doing parody impersonations. Basically, tricking people is not ok,” he said.
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