“blue tick” for money

Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, announced a new $8 per month Twitter Blue plan earlier this month, with benefits like fewer ads, priority in search, posting longer videos, and paying for verification.

Under Musk’s new rules, anyone can receive a verified “blue check” if they pay for Blue, raising concerns that any user could now create a fake account for a celebrity or politician who would have such a verification check. It is clear that no one is going to do the verification themselves at the moment. Now the subscription works in test mode, and there have already been cases of creating a fake account of the Mask itself.

Broadcast from Elon Musk’s fake verified account / Screenshot

Musk is afraid of problems

These fears only grew before the midterm elections, as verified users impersonating politicians and the media could cause confusion. Before Musk became the owner of the company, Twitter put verified marks on famous people who could prove their accounts belonged to them to combat attempts at impersonation. The platform also had specific rules that prohibited users with parody or unofficial fan accounts from receiving a verification badge.

It’s unclear how Musk plans to deal with users impersonating others on the platform, but as app researcher Nima Ouji points out, an “Official Account” tag for famous users could be part of the plan, while follower clicks will have a small pop-up. window showing the source of their status.

Confused on Twitter

Recall that Musk previously asked his employees to appoint Blue with verification by November 7, and threatened to fire them if they didn’t comply. Twitter on Saturday updated its iOS app with mention of new Blue subscriptions, but it had no real access to the subscription and the changes were reverted shortly after.

Esther Crawford, Twitter product manager who led the project, confirmed that the features are “coming soon,” but did not specify when we might see an official launch.

Meanwhile, chaos continues within the company regarding layoffs. It turned out that Musk fired specialists responsible for the development and operation of the social network itself. They have already received offers to return to work. This shows that after Musk came to the company, everything became very fast, unplanned and chaotic. This is likely to be a major source of trouble for Elon in the future.