Why Elon Musk Decided to Pause the Relaunch of Twitter Blue
Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk said Monday the social media company has stopped relaunching its green check subscription service, delaying its original timeline for bringing the service back to the platform. “We’re holding off on the re-launch of Blue Verified until there is more confidence to stop impersonation,” Musk said on Twitter.
“Maybe it will use a different color check for organizations than for individuals.”
Stop reintroducing Blue Verified until there is high confidence to stop impersonation.
It will probably use different color checks for organizations than for individuals.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2022
The coveted green check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, celebrities, journalists and other public figures.
But the subscription option, open to anyone willing to pay, was introduced earlier this month to help Twitter raise revenue as Musk fights to retain advertisers.
Twitter has temporarily suspended its newly announced $8 blue check subscription service, as fake accounts are on the rise and said Twitter’s proposed green check subscription service will be relaunched on Nov. 29.
Last week, Musk tweeted that with the new release, changing a verified person’s name will cause the green check to be lost until their name is verified by Twitter to meet the platform’s terms of service.
Musk also tweeted that Twitter added 1.6 million users this past week, “another high”.
Advertisers on Twitter, including major companies such as General Motors, Mondelez International, and Volkswagen AG, have temporarily suspended advertising on the platform, as they vie for a new manager.
Hundreds of Twitter workers are also estimated to have quit last week, following Musk’s Thursday deadline for workers to log “long hours at high intensity,” or walk away.
Musk previously said Twitter users who impersonate without clearly identifying it as a “parody” account will be permanently suspended without warning. Many fake accounts, including those of Nintendo and BP, have been suspended.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
