Twitter on Saturday launched a subscription service for $8 a month that includes a blue checkmark now given to verified accounts as new owner Elon Musk overhauls the platform’s verification system.
In the update for Apple iOS devices, Twitter Said that users who “sign up now” can receive a blue checkmark next to their name, “just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow.”
represents the end of change Twitter’s current verification system, which was launched in 2009 to prevent the impersonation of high-profile accounts such as celebrities and politicians. Before the overhaul, Twitter had about 423,000 verified accounts, many of them journalists from around the world whom the company verified by how many followers they had.
Experts have expressed serious concern about improving the platform’s verification system, which is not perfect but has helped Twitter’s 238 million daily users determine whether the accounts they were accessing information from were authentic. were or not. Updates Twitter made to the iOS version of its app don’t mention verification as part of the new “blue check” system.
This comes a day after the company started laying off employees to cut costs. Nearly half of the company’s 7,500 employees were laid off, tweeted Joel Roth, Twitter’s head of security and integrity.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on Saturday blamed it for such widespread job losses. He had two runs as CEO of Twitter, with the most recent stretching from 2015 to 2021.
“I have a responsibility for why everyone is in this position: I grew the company too quickly,” he tweeted. “I apologize for that.”
Musk tweeted late Friday that he had no choice but to cut jobs “when the company is losing more than $4M/day.” He did not give details of the daily losses at the company and said that employees who lost their jobs were offered three months’ pay as a severance.
Meanwhile, Twitter has already seen a “massive drop in revenue” due to pressure from active groups to pull advertisers off the platform, Musk tweeted on Friday. It gives a tough competition to Twitter because of its hitherto heavy reliance on advertising to make money. In the first six months of this year, about $92 out of every $100 he earned in revenue came from advertising.
United Airlines became the latest major brand to block advertising on Twitter. Chicago-based United confirmed on Saturday that it had made the move, but declined to discuss the reasons or what would have to be seen if advertising on the platform would resume.
It joins a growing list of big companies blocking ads on Twitter, including General Motors, REI, General Mills and Audi.
Musk tried to reassure advertisers last week, saying Twitter will not become a “free-for-all hellscape,” as he calls his commitment to free speech.
But concerns remain about whether Twitter’s light touch on content moderation will send users more aggressive tweets. If their ads appear next to them then it can harm the brands of the companies.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.
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