As new owner Elon Musk updates the platform’s authentication system, Twitter on Saturday launched a subscription option for $8 per month that includes the blue checkmark now granted to verified accounts.
Twitter announced in a software update for Apple iOS devices that users who “sign up now” will get the blue checkmark next to their names “exactly like the celebrities, businesses, and politicians you already follow.”
With the change, Twitter will no longer use its current verification method, which was launched in 2009 to stop impersonations of prominent accounts like those of politicians and celebrities. Before the redesign, Twitter had roughly 423,000 verified accounts, many of which were independent journalists from across the world who were confirmed by the business irrespective of the number of followers they had.
Although not perfect, the platform’s verification system has helped Twitter’s 238 million daily users decide whether the accounts they were getting information from were authentic. Experts have expressed major worries about reshaping the system. The “blue check” system’s new “verification” feature is not mentioned in the upgrade Twitter made to its iOS app.
It happens a day after the business started firing employees to reduce costs. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety & integrity, tweeted that almost half of the company’s 7,500 employees were let go.
On Saturday, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey accepted responsibility for the significant employment losses. He served as Twitter’s CEO twice, the most recent of which lasted from 2015 until 2021.
“I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly,” he tweeted. “I apologize for that.”
