While Twitter’s future certainly seems uncertain, Musk still has plans to relaunch the platform’s Blue subscription with paid verification on November 29th. Now, new details on the ‘About Twitter Blue‘ page (spotted by The Verge) say that new accounts will need to wait 90 days before they can sign up for the service:
“Availability: Twitter Blue is currently available on iOS only in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, with plans to expand. Not all features available on all platforms. Newly created Twitter accounts will not be able to subscribe to Twitter Blue for 90 days. We may also impose waiting periods for new accounts in the future in our discretion without notice.” (emphasis ours)
The new delay comes after Blue opened the floodgates for impersonation on the platform by handing anyone who paid for the subscription a blue checkmark that looks identical to the old verification badge used to mark high-profile accounts as authentic. Nearly everyone could tell adding paid verification was a bad idea, and Twitter even warned Musk, but that didn’t stop him from implementing the change. Twitter suspended the Blue launch within days after rampant impersonation.
During the brief initial run of Blue, Twitter did block accounts made on or after November 9th from signing up for the service, but that didn’t do much to stop existing accounts from buying checkmarks to trick users. The new 90-day delay could help prevent people from making new accounts and buying checkmarks to scam users, but as The Verge notes, there’s nothing stopping scammers from stockpiling free accounts for a few months and then buying checkmarks for them later.
Twitter also has plans for other mitigation efforts, but I don’t see any of them being effective. For example, Musk previously said that Twitter users who change their verified username will temporarily lose their checkmark until Twitter confirms the new name doesn’t violate the terms of service. However, with Twitter’s staff cuts, contract worker purge and mass resignations, it’s not clear who will check changed usernames. Moreover, it still isn’t clear if Twitter will check usernames when people sign up for Blue.
Ultimately, Musk seems committed to the idea of paid blue checkmarks regardless of the potential harm to both Twitter and its user base. As I’ve said before, the issue is less about paying for a blue checkmark and more about what the checkmark means. If there was still a system in place to verify high-profile accounts and designate them as authentic, and if it was separate from the badge users get for paying, it’d be a different story. It’s worth noting Twitter tried to do that with a new grey ‘Official’ badge, but the implementation was clunky, and Musk killed the project before it suddenly returned amid the flood of impersonations.
You can view the ongoing Twitter coverage here.
Source: Twitter Via: The Verge
