Twitter takeover: Elon Musk announces Blue Tick shakeup
Twitter boss Elon Musk has announced changes to the social media platform’s paid feature, Twitter Blue.
Starting 15 April, only verified subscribers will have their posts recommended to other users and be allowed to vote in polls.
Posts from non-paying accounts will not appear in the “For you” stream of recommended tweets.
The current subscription fee for blue-tick verification is $7 (£5.70) per month and also provides access to additional features.
Musk stated that these changes are necessary to tackle AI bot swarms and make it easier to identify them.
However, the move has been criticised by some users for potentially allowing verified users to influence misinformation or harm.
The blue tick was previously used to verify high-profile accounts without a subscription fee, but Twitter has recently started phasing out its “legacy verified program” and will remove some “legacy verified checkmarks” from 1 April.
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