Twitter has suspended Twitter Blue following massive impersonation that followed the idea introduced by new owner Elon Musk earlier this week.
Musk, who completed the acquisition of Twitter at the end of October, introduced $8 verification fee as an additional means of generating revenue for the social media company. The Twitter Blue now offers anyone who pays $8 per month the opportunity to be verified.
The idea has led to increase in number of verified accounts as many pay $8 for the blue checkmark. But it also unleashed unprecedented impersonation and disinformation on Twitter, forcing the platform to halt the feature.
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“Twitter has suspended the launch of Twitter Blue and is actively trying to stop people from subscribing ‘to help address impersonation issues,” Schiffer tweeted.
NEW: Twitter has suspended the launch of Twitter Blue and is actively trying to stop people from subscribing "to help address impersonation issues," per an internal note. 1/
— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) November 11, 2022
Schiffer said the internal note was shared on the company Slack: “An update on what we did tonight: hid the entry point to Twitter Blue, added the ‘official’ label for ONLY advertisers. Note: here is at least one way for users to sign up for Blue. Legacy Blue users can go to subscriptions and upgrade,” she quoted the note saying.
Musk’s decision to monetize Twitter verification was highly criticized. Many users believe it will defeat the purpose of the checkmark which lends credibility to user identity. But he didn’t change his mind. He only reviewed the verification fee from the $20 he wanted it to be to $8.
Now with many signing up for the blue checkmark, impersonation of public figures and firms has become prevalent on the platform. Reports said that racial abuse and bullying have also rocketed on Twitter since Musk took over.
Musk’s idea of putting an end to the impersonation is directing that parody accounts must indicate it in their bio. He warned last week that any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended. On Friday, he announced new updates.
“Going forward, accounts engaged in parody must include “parody” in their name, not just in bio,” he said, adding that “We’re adding a “Parody” subscript to clarify,” he said.
With that yet to be complied with by users, as indicated by the growing number of impersonated accounts, Twitter has chosen to shut down the Twitter Blue feature until the problem is fixed.
Schiffer reported that Twitter’s note said existing subscribers will still be able to access Twitter Blue features, and that the company disabled the option to purchase Twitter Blue on iOS.
Twitter users confirmed this early on Friday, saying the sign-up for Twitter Blue was no longer available on the iOS app. The Verge reported that users who still had the option to subscribe received an error message that said, Thank you for your interest! Twitter Blue will be available in your country in the future. Please check back later.
The unprecedented crisis has put Twitter’s checkmark revenue stream on hold. Musk said it should account for half of the company’s revenue.
It is not clear if making users indicate when accounts are parody will stop the mess. Musk said on Thursday that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. “We will keep what works & change what doesn’t,” he added.