As new owner Elon Musk revamps the platform’s authentication system, Twitter on Sunday NZT introduced a subscription service for US$8 (NZ$13.51) a month that includes a blue checkmark now provided to verified accounts.
Twitter announced that users who “sign up now” will get the blue checkmark next to their names “exactly like the celebrities, businesses, and politicians you currently follow,” according to an update for Apple iOS devices.
The modification signals the end of Twitter’s existing verification process, which was introduced in 2009 to stop impersonations of high-profile accounts including those of politicians and celebrities.
Twitter before the overhaul had about 423,000 verified accounts, many of them rank-and-file journalists from around the globe that the company verified regardless of how many followers they had.
Although not flawless, the platform’s verification system has helped Twitter’s 238 million daily users decide whether the accounts they were obtaining information from were real. Experts have expressed major worries about upending the system.
The “blue check” system’s new “verification” component is not mentioned in the upgrade Twitter made to its iOS app.
It comes a day after the company began laying off workers to cut costs.
Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety & integrity, tweeted that almost half of the company’s 7,500 employees were let go.
On Sunday NZT, Jack Dorsey, a co-founder of Twitter, accepted responsibility for the significant job losses. He served as Twitter’s CEO twice, the most recent of which lasted from 2015 until 2021.
I enlarged the company size too quickly, and I take full responsibility for why everyone is in this predicament, he tweeted. “I apologise for that. ”.
Twitter introduces a $8 per month membership with a blue checkmark.
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