Elon Musk says Twitter won’t restart paid verification until “significant impersonations” stop
Elon Musk told Twitter employees Monday that the company will not relaunch its paid verification subscription, Twitter Blue, until “we are confident that significant impersonations are not occurring,” according to a recording of his comments obtained by The edge.
Musk said last week that his $8-a-month Blue subscription would be available again on November 29. But during the meeting with employees, he said the timing of the launch was unclear: “Maybe we’ll launch it next week. Maybe not. But we won’t start until there is a lot of confidence in protecting against those significant mimics.”
It’s unclear how Musk intends to prevent accounts from impersonating others with the blue check, as Twitter Blue doesn’t verify that anyone’s identity is who they claim to be. Since Musk took over, Twitter has been adding and removing separate, gray ticks on high-profile accounts without explanation, presumably as part of its effort to differentiate itself from the blue tick that has become something anyone can buy.
During today’s meeting with Twitter employees, Musk said the company will “probably” have to give “institutions and companies” an “other color check,” but didn’t elaborate, noting that “this is still something we’re considering” .
“Any social media platform, in my opinion no matter what it is, will be vulnerable to bots and trolls unless there is a payment barrier to significantly increase the cost of bots and trolls,” he said. He also told employees that Twitter was done firing and rehiring, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The edge.
After this story was published, Musk confirmed in a tweet that the company “postponed the relaunch of Blue Verified until there is high confidence in stopping impersonation,” and that we will “probably use a different color check for organizations than for individuals.”
Musk has made Twitter Blue a top priority within the company as part of his effort to diversify the company’s revenue away from advertising, which he said has seen a “massive drop” since he took over.
Twitter’s entire communications department has been fired or resigned, so there’s no one to contact for comment.