Elon Musk said on Tuesday that Twitter’s sought-after blue check subscription service will be relaunched on November 29, a minor delay from his initial tentative timeline to bring back the service on the social media platform. “Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid,” Musk said in a tweet.
With the new release, changing someone’s verified name will cause the loss of the blue check “until name is confirmed by Twitter to meet terms of service”, Musk said.
Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022
The coveted blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures. But a subscription option, open to anyone prepared to pay, was rolled out earlier this week to help Twitter grow revenue as Musk fights to retain advertisers.
Last week, the Tesla chief had said Twitter Blue will probably “come back end of next week”.
Twitter had paused its recently announced $8 (roughly Rs. 650) blue check subscription service on Friday as fake accounts mushroomed. The change came a week after Musk took over the social media company in a $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3.6 lakh crore) deal.
Last week, in his first companywide email, Musk warned that Twitter would not be able to “survive the upcoming economic downturn” if it failed to boost subscription revenue to offset falling advertising income, three people who saw the message told Reuters.
Musk previously stated that Twitter users engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying it as a “parody” account will be permanently suspended without a warning. Several fake brand accounts, including those of Nintendo and BP, have been suspended.
Many companies, including General Motors and United Airlines, have paused or pulled back from advertising on the platform after Musk took over. In response, the billionaire said last week that he aimed to turn Twitter into a force for truth and stop fake accounts.
© Thomson Reuters 2022