Tesla founder Elon Musk said on Tuesday that Twitter will not relaunch its paid verification subscription called Twitter Blue until the company is highly confident of stopping significant impersonations on the social media platform.
On November 12, Twitter had suspended its $8 blue tick subscription plan after fake accounts on the social media platform increased. Imposter accounts, including those with names of Elon Musk-owned firms Tesla and SpaceX, emerged on the platform since the rollout of the subscription plan earlier this month.
Musk who took over Twitter on October 27 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 the account name of the users indicating that the profile is verified.
Musk had said that users who pay for the blue tick under the new plan would get some advantages over others, including priority in replies, mentions and searches that are “essential to defeat spam/scam”, and the ability to post long videos as well as audio.
Last week, Musk had said that Twitter will relaunch the Blue subscription on November 29. It was unclear how the social media company planned to stop accounts from impersonating others with the blue checkmark since the Twitter Blue subscription plan does not verify an account’s identity.
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.
On Tuesday, Musk also said that Twitter might use different colour checks for organisations and individuals.
Notably, Twitter has been adding and removing separate grey checkmarks on high-profile accounts without explanation, reported The Verge. This is presumed to be a part of the company’s effort to distinguish from the blue checkmark that can be bought by anyone, said the report.
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