An picture of recent Twitter proprietor Elon Musk is seen surrounded by Twitter logos on this picture illustration in Warsaw, Poland on 08 November, 2022.
STR | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Twitter proprietor Elon Musk stated on Monday night that the corporate is planning to delay the relaunch of its $8 monthly Blue Verified service. Musk stated Twitter will “probably use different color check for organizations than individuals.”
Twitter Blue was launched earlier this month however was pulled after customers abused the brand new paid choice, which Musk hoped would drive new income to the platform. It allowed customers to pay for a Blue checkmark, beforehand reserved for verified customers.
Musk had earlier stated he deliberate to relaunch Twitter Blue on Nov. 29.
The paid Blue subscription service led to a plethora of pranksters creating imposter accounts on Twitter. It left the platform much more ripe for misinformation, and lots of cheaply acquired checkmarks had been used to impersonate manufacturers, politicians and celebrities with unflattering messages.
A consumer impersonating pharmaceutical big Eli Lily, for instance, tweeted “we are excited to announce insulin is free now.”
Eli Lilly’s inventory value dropped sharply after the false message was posted, and so did different pharmaceutical corporations together with AbbVie, which was additionally impersonated on Twitter. At that point, main inventory indices had been constructive, amid a market rally.
Twitter has trialed utilizing two test marks, together with a Blue one for paid and previously-verified customers and a grey “Official” checkmark for some manufacturers, reminiscent of news organizations. But there was a complicated overlap, the place some accounts had each checkmarks. Musk killed the “Offical” checkmark the identical day it rolled out.
The delay comes after Musk gutted a lot of Twitter’s workers. About half of the corporate’s 7,500 staff had been laid off earlier this month. Then, final week, about one other 1,200 full-time staff left, in line with The New York Times, after Musk demanded staff decide to working “long hours at high intensity” on his imaginative and prescient for “Twitter 2.0” or submit their resignations.
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.