Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk still plans to forge ahead with paid verification on the platform, apparently learning little from the recent fiasco.
In a recent tweet, Musk announced that Twitter Blue would launch again on November 29th “to make sure that it is rock solid.”
As a quick refresher, Twitter launched then quickly un-launched a revamped version of its Blue subscription service on November 9th. Customers who signed on for the $9.99 subscription got a blue checkmark next to their name. However, that checkmark was previously used as Twitter’s verification badge to denote authentic accounts, primarily a tool intended to prevent people from impersonating high-profile accounts like those of government officials, companies, celebrities, or journalists.
Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022
Basically, everyone with a modicum of foresight knew paid verification was a bad idea, including Twitter’s own trust and safety team, which detailed potential problems and solutions in a seven-page document served up to Musk and his cohort ahead of the November 9th launch. Naturally, Musk ignored most of the suggestions and, as predicted, paid verification resulted in a flood of impersonations on the platform. Accounts sporting the new paid badge impersonated brands, government officials, and more, leading some to lose significant amounts of money. One account even parodied Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Admittedly, it was fun to watch the chaos unfold.
Musk also tweeted his apparent plan for dealing with impersonations, which is just temporarily removing the blue checkmark from accounts when they change their name. Accounts will get the checkmark back once Twitter confirms the new name meets the company’s terms of service. It remains unclear who will be vetting all these name changes, given Musk laid off a significant chunk of Twitter’s staff, fired most of the company’s contract workers, and issued an ultimatum to those who remain to put in long hours or quit. It’s also unclear if Twitter will vet account names when they sign up for Blue.
Musk reiterated plans to remove unpaid legacy checkmarks “in a few months” as well and tweeted about ‘X’ again, calling it the “everything app.”
Aside from the Blue relaunch, Musk tweeted some other details about ongoing Twitter projects. Leaker Jane Manchun Wong tweeted evidence of Twitter working on end-to-end encrypted DMs, to which Musk replied simply, “😉.” Wong also tweeted that the source detail, which shows the app a person tweeted from, was gone in the app prototype she looked at. It’ll be sad to see tweet sources go, considering how much fun tech folks had spotting Android ads tweeted from iPhones.
You can follow along with the latest Twitter turmoil here.
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