Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, is working to reform the platform’s verification system just before of the U.S. midterm elections. As a result, Twitter has introduced a subscription service for $7.99 per month that includes a blue check now provided exclusively to verified accounts.
In an update for Apple iOS devices available in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, Twitter announced that users who “sign up now” for the new “Twitter Blue with verification” will receive a blue check next to their names, “just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow.”
However, Twitter employee Esther Crawford tweeted on Saturday that the “new Blue is not yet live – the race to our launch continues but certain users may see us testing and releasing changes in real time.”
Checks associated with verified accounts do not appear to have been lost thus far.
It was unclear when the subscription would become active. Crawford told The Associated Press through Twitter that the launch is imminent but has not yet occurred. Twitter did not reply immediately to a request for comment.
In response to a concern regarding the potential of impostors imitating verified profiles – such as elected officials and politicians – Musk tweeted on Saturday, “Twitter will suspend the account attempting impersonation and retain the money!”
“Therefore, if con artists want to do this a million times, that’s just free money,” he stated.
However, many are concerned that the extensive layoffs that began on Friday could undermine the safeguards of content filtering and verification on the social platform that public agencies, election boards, police departments, and news outlets utilize to reliably educate the public.
Twitter’s current verification mechanism, implemented in 2009 to prevent imitation of high-profile accounts such as celebrities and politicians, will be discontinued. Twitter has approximately 423,000 verified accounts, the majority of which are journalistic rank-and-file from throughout the world, regardless of their number of followers.
Experts have expressed major worries about dismantling the platform’s authentication system, which, although not flawless, has assisted Twitter’s 238 million daily users in determining whether the accounts from which they obtain information are real. Existing verified accounts include celebrities, athletes, and influencers, as well as government agencies and politicians from around the world, journalists and news outlets, activists, corporations, and brands, as well as Musk himself.
Jennifer Grygiel, a social media expert and associate professor of communications at Syracuse University, stated, “He recognizes the blue check’s worth and is attempting to use it swiftly.” “He must earn the people’s trust before he can sell them anything. Why would you purchase a vehicle from a salesperson that has proven to be chaotic?”
The update Twitter released to the iOS version of its app does not mention the new blue check verification procedure. The update is currently unavailable on Android devices.
Musk, who has stated that he wants to “verify all humans” on Twitter, has suggested that public persons would be identified by means other than the blue checkmark. Currently, alongside the names of government officials is language indicating that they are posting from an official government account.
The @POTUS account of Vice President Joe Biden, for instance, indicates in gray text that it belongs to a “United States government official.”
The decision comes one day after Twitter began laying off employees to save expenses and as more corporations pause advertising on the site in anticipation of how it would operate under its new owner.
Twitter’s head of safety and integrity, Yoel Roth, tweeted that almost half of the company’s 7,500 employees were laid go.
He stated that the company’s front-line content moderation workforce was the least affected by the layoffs and that “efforts on election integrity – including combating damaging misinformation that might suppress the vote and state-backed information operations – remain a high focus.”
Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, acknowledged responsibility for the job losses.
“I am responsible for everyone’s current condition since I built the company too quickly,” he tweeted on Saturday. “I am sorry about it.”
On Saturday, United Airlines became the latest major business to suspend advertising on Twitter, after General Motors, REI, General Mills, and Audi.
Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged Musk on Saturday to “ensure human rights are integral to Twitter’s management.” Türk wrote in an open letter that allegations that the business cut off its entire human rights team and a significant portion of its ethical AI team were not “encouraging.”
“Like all organizations, Twitter must comprehend the risks involved with its platform and take measures to mitigate them,” Türk said. Respect for our shared human rights should guide the use and evolution of the platform.