Twitter has resumed selling the premium service Twitter Blue, which gives users a blue verification badge under their name, after a week-long pause because some subscribers are using the paid service to impersonate well-known accounts.
After several postponements, the social network said in a blog post that Twitter Blue is now available. Users who pay $8 a month will get a checkmark in a blue badge next to their profile picture and will be able to edit tweets, among other perks.
Twitter said it will take “several other steps to detect and prevent impersonation,” including requiring users to have a valid phone number attached to their account. Users who change their username or photo will also lose the check mark “until such changes are reviewed by Twitter”.
“Accounts found to be in violation of our rules may be suspended without refunds,” the blog reads.
Before billionaire Elon Musk took the company private in late October, Twitter verified accounts with blue badges as a way to distinguish prominent users or those at risk of impersonation. including celebrities, musicians and journalists. But the verification process is also unclear, and Musk has criticized it as a “lord and peasant system”.
But the first attempt at a payment system for verification led to widespread impersonation as users who purchased checkmarks changed their usernames to the names of famous people and brands, including Musk. The verification process has been temporarily suspended as the company tries to figure out how to fix the problem.
Musk is also taking a subtle shot at Apple Inc. as part of Twitter Blue’s relaunch. The company will charge users $11 per month if they sign up via Apple’s Twitter for iOS app, an attempt to recoup the fees charged by Apple for in-app purchases. Musk has repeatedly complained about those fees, calling them “the de facto global tax on the internet.”
Users who don’t pay for Twitter Blue will lose their verification badge “in a few months,” Musk tweeted Second, although he had previously made similar statements.
The San Francisco-based company said it will also begin offering check marks in different colors, including a yellow checkmark for business and a gray checkmark for political accounts.
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