Twitter Blue, a blue checkmark service, will be reactivated. Users will, however, have to pay a monthly charge to maintain the blue checks.
One of the most notable aspects of the new deal is that Apple customers would be charged more than others. According to Twitter, the revived feature would cost $8 per month. However, Apple customers would have to pay $11 monthly for the service. Musk’s move follows his critiques of Apple, which supposedly levies a 30% tax on anything purchased through the Apple store.
According to Twitter, the new style would allow users to differentiate between people, businesses, and governments. However, getting verified on Twitter will take time to be granted by the firm. So instead, users must go through a verification procedure.
“On Monday, we are bringing back the ability to subscribe to TwitterBlue — it’ll be $8/mo on the web and $11/mo on iOS. In addition, we’ve added a review step before applying a blue checkmark to an account as one of our new steps to combat impersonation (which is against the Twitter Rules),” said Twitter Product Management Director Esther Crawford.
“You’ll start seeing gold checkmarks appear in your timeline — those are indicators for businesses. Soon afterward, you’ll see gray checkmarks which are for government and multilateral accounts.”
“Big thanks to the Blue team for all your hard work — this continues to be a collaborative effort involving folks from eng, product, design, health, legal, marketing, sales, and more!”
Fortunately, the company’s new format received excellent feedback from others. Unfortunately, their previous Blue Check initiative failed and garnered an unfavorable response from the public.
Several individuals copied Musk’s Twitter handle and photo, while others modified their identities to seem like other accounts. Musk was forced to withdraw the authentication option for some time due to the disruption. However, the corporation will now roll out its revised Blue Check tool with new and improved optimizations.
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Modifications in a profile will temporarily remove mark
Musk said that verified Twitter users might temporarily lose their check marks if they altered some of their account credentials. For example, when a verified user changes his display name, picture, or handle, Twitter immediately removes the checkmark. However, the adjustment will only be temporary. If a change is identified, the employer will need to check the account’s legitimacy.
“With a reduced workforce, it remains to be seen if it will be possible to prevent fraud, impersonation and scams with their new identity verification methodology,” said Rache Tobac, the CEO of SocialProof Security.
“Scammers will quickly determine how they can overwhelm or manipulate the identity verification system to get ‘authenticated’ as an entity they are not.”
Relaunching after the midterm elections
Elon has already attempted to adapt the blue check subscription scheme to Twitter before the elections. However, the decision was received with a barrage of criticism from celebrities. As a result, Musk decided to halt the subscription plan deployment. However, he emphasized that the strategy would be ready after the midterm elections.
“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” said the CEO.
“Previously, we issued a warning before the suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning. This will be identified as a condition for signing up for Twitter Bl3ue. Any name change will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark,” Elon added.
“Far too many legacies ‘verified’ checkmarks were handed out, often arbitrarily, so in reality, they are not verified. With a Google search, you can buy as many as you want. Piggybacking off payment system plus Apple/Android is a much better way to ensure verification,” he said.
“Eight dollars is not cost-prohibitive for scammers. So it is essential that Twitter figures out this whole official or not issue,” said Rache Tobac from Social Proof Security.
“Right now, we have people making jokes, impersonating the president, impersonating Nintendo, and Elon Musk is laughing at those jokes because he thinks they’re funny right now. What’s not going to be funny is someone impersonating an election official. And meddling and causing interference with the election results,” she added.
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Filing for bankruptcy
The new membership model would eventually increase Twitter’s income. For several months, the firm battled to keep up with escalating operating expenditures. Finally, it prompted Musk to lay off hundreds of employees.
Unfortunately, it did not go down well with many people. And Musk took flak from the public. Top executives soon quit Twitter due to Musk’s inability to lead the firm forward. According to Andy Wu of Harvard Business School, Twitter may declare bankruptcy for various reasons.
“It’s hypothetically possible that he could use more of his Tesla stock to bail out Twitter or turn to his cadre of co-investors, who would probably have no trouble finding the money. So the saying, ‘if you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem, but if you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem’ might apply here,” Wu explained.
“Bankruptcy would also allow Musk to refinance the debt, which would make the company more financially stable. But, in addition to potential financial returns, my sense is that Musk and his co-investors are ideologically driven, that they’re really driven by values,” he added.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Source: NPR
