Elon Musk reportedly remarked in a tape of his Monday discussion with Twitter staff that the firm wouldn't relaunch Twitter Blue, its paid subscription for verified accounts, unless "we're satisfied about large impersonations not happening."
Musk revealed last week that his $8 monthly Blue subscription, which was previously unavailable, would reopen on November 29. But he remarked, "We might launch it next week," at the staff meeting. Perhaps not. However, we won't go live until we have absolute confidence in our ability to block those serious impersonations.
Musk’s first significant overhaul after taking control of Twitter was to quickly roll out a feature that allowed users to purchase a verified status indicator called Twitter Blue. After only two days of use, paid verification was disabled. The Musk-led rollout quickly led to rampant impersonation of high-profile accounts, including those of Twitter’s advertisers, despite warnings from Twitter’s trust and safety staff.
Given that Twitter Blue doesn’t confirm that identity is who they claim to be, it needs to be clarified how Musk plans to prevent accounts from impersonating others with the blue checkmark. In an apparent effort to differentiate itself from the blue checkmark, which has become a commodity anyone can buy, Twitter has been adding and removing distinct, grey checkmarks on high-profile accounts without explanation since Musk took over.
At today’s company meeting, Musk told employees that Twitter “probably” needs to give “institutions and companies” a “different colour check.” However, he didn’t go into detail because “this is still something we’re thinking through.”
To paraphrase, “any given social media platform, in my view, doesn’t matter what it is, will be vulnerable to bots and trolls unless there is some payment barrier to increase the cost of bots and trolls significantly,” he said. According to a recording of the meeting obtained by Prime 9ja Online, he assured employees that Twitter had completed its layoffs and was again accepting applications.
Musk tweeted after the story came out that the company was “holding off the relaunch of Blue Verified until there is high confidence of stopping impersonation” and that “we will probably use different colour check for organisations than individuals.”
Since taking over as CEO, Musk has made it a top priority to diversify Twitter’s revenue away from advertising, which he claims has seen a “massive drop” since he took over.
There is no one left to reach out to at Twitter for comment because everyone in the communications department has been fired or quit.