The landscape of Twitter has been changing wildly under the reign of Elon Musk, after the billionaire purchased the social media platform late last month. One of the most controversial changes that Musk has made to Twitter has been changes to its verification format, allowing any user who subscribes to the paid Twitter Blue tier to immediately get an elusive “checkmark” usually reserved for celebrities or otherwise noteworthy figures. The implementation of this new policy has gone into some bizarre directions — and now it looks like it might have gone away all together.
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On late Thursday, November 10th, the Twitter Blue option became no longer available for U.S. users to subscribe to, according to some people who previously had access. Some pages of the website which previously promoted Twitter Blue now do not provide the ability to actually purchase it, with the desktop site showing an error message that claims that “You can only subscribe on the Twitter iOS app.” When you try to access it on the iOS app, an error message proclaims that the feature is not yet “available in your country.” ComicBook.com has reached out to Twitter for comment.
Why did Twitter’s Verification change?
Being Verified on Twitter has gone through multiple evolutions in the span of the past few weeks, beginning with Musk floating the idea of charging upwards of $20 a month for a Twitter Blue subscription. The cost was then changed to $8 a month — something that quickly backfired, as many users purchased Verified accounts to impersonate real figures or brands. In an attempt to combat this, Musk has threatened to suspend any fake Verified accounts, rolled out (and then removed) a second “Official” checkmark, and then proclaim that fake accounts need to include “Parody” in their display name and bio.
As those who have been on Twitter in the past few days can probably attest, none of these measures have stopped the influx of fake accounts — so it seems as if Musk’s strategy is now to just remove (even temporarily) the option to purchase a Verified account.
What do you think of Twitter removing the Twitter Blue option? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
