In New York: Twitter said on Saturday that it would relaunch its subscription service next week, including a system for authenticating accounts on the platform, after several failed attempts.
The company stated in a tweet, “We’re relaunching @TwitterBlue on Monday — subscribe on the web for $8/month or on (Apple’s) iOS for $11/month to get access to subscriber-only features, including the blue checkmark.”
https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1601692766257709056
In the past, an account’s blue checkmark, which indicates that it has been verified by Twitter, was free; however, in an effort to prevent impersonation and misinformation, it was restricted to public figures and organizations.
Elon Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur, bought Twitter in October and said he would use new paying models for premium features to expand the company’s revenue beyond advertising.
Ten days after Musk took control at the beginning of November, a first version was released, but a lot of fake accounts posing as celebrities or businesses appeared, causing controversy. Quickly, the version was halted.
Twitter stated that under the new offer, accounts seeking blue checkmarks will be reviewed once more.
It added that businesses’ checkmarks will turn gold, while government organizations’ checkmarks will turn gray later in the week.
Additionally, subscribers will have access to features that enable them to download videos of a higher quality and edit tweets after they have been published.
“Gratitude for your understanding as we’ve attempted to improve Blue,” the organization tweet said.
Musk had stated that Twitter Blue would be back by the end of November, but a few days later, he said the project had been put on hold indefinitely while experts worked on a system to prevent impersonation.
