After a long commute, Elon Musk finally bought Twitter more than two weeks ago. In this short time, some ideas that the businessman had before closing the operation began to take shape. verification of accounts.

Earlier this year, Musk had offered (in a tweet since it was deleted) Present the blue verification badge to all users who pay $2 for Twitter Blue. According to the businessman, the idea behind this was to make it easier to distinguish fake accounts from real ones to fight bots.

The truth is, the new features Twitter is working on seem to change almost in real time. As of this writing, the new Twitter Blue won’t cost $2 or just offer a blue verification badge. It will cost $8 and will come with additional benefits for subscribers.

Twitter had two verification badges for a few hours

Amid so much contention, it’s normal for social network users to be a little confused. But there is more. Twitter is changing its verification scheme. Only had two verification badges for a few hoursAnother “Official” of Twitter Blue subscribers accompanied by a hashtag.

Esther Crawford, Twitter’s director of product management, announced the changes on the social network in response to user concerns about potential phishing with verified Twitter Blue badges. But the novelty remained active for only a few hours. Elon Musk this afternoon tweeted “he killed her“.

I just killed

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 9 November 2022

The idea that Twitter tested was to introduce an incoming small verification badge. Accompanied by the “Official” tag. It was a form of validation, According to Crawford’s words“couldn’t be bought” and reserved for companies, government accounts, media, public figures, among others.

Twitter Blue subscribers, for their part, would receive a verification badge. Number will include authenticationhowever, it would provide access to features such as priority replies, mentions, and searches to “beat spam,” announced by Elon Musk a few days ago.

Crawford noted that not all previously verified accounts will receive an “Official” label, so we’ll see how they go about it. Some relevant accounts (for example Reuters, Boundary Y Marques Brownlee) showed the small emblem accompanied by the “Official” label for several hours, but that designation has now disappeared.

As we said, development of new Twitter functions takes place in real time. Under Elon Musk’s leadership, it looks like this will be the norm, at least for now. “Remember that Twitter is going to do a lot of stupid things in the coming months. We’ll keep what works and replace what doesn’t.” the businessman said.

For now, regarding the efforts to combat bots on the platform; Joel RothThe head of security and integrity said they will increase scrutiny of accounts with active Twitter Blue by focusing on phishing.

In this sense, twitter says It said it could remove the Twitter Blue verification badge from subscribers who don’t follow its rules, including rules on spam, bypassing and phishing. It is a matter of curiosity how Elon Musk’s changes for the social network will develop and, above all, what will be the reaction of users.

Images: Twitter

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