Let Elon Musk choose April Fool’s Day to start Twitter’s version of Purge.
Starting Saturday, users with legacy verification badges — notable accounts that were verified under Twitter’s previous leadership — are expected to lose their blue checks, like The social media company had been hinting at it for months but announced in a tweet on March 23.
The verification purge is part of Twitter’s effort to increase subscriptions to its $8-a-month (or $84-a-year) Twitter Blue product, which, among other features, provides users with Personal use with a verified phone number blue verification badge has previously been reserved for celebrities, politicians and prominent journalists as a means of helping to reduce impersonation accounts.
Other Twitter Blue features that are expected to launch soon are reducing ads and prioritizing replies, mentions, and searches, in addition to editing and the ability to tweet longer videos.
Business accounts, including government accounts, are also required to sign up for Twitter’s verified organization service, which costs $1,000 a month and an additional $50 per month per account. linked accounts, raising the question of whether businesses are willing to pay a minimum of $12,000 a year to maintain the verification badge on one of their business accounts and potentially add additional accounts. Affiliate accounts have their own affiliate badges.
In a tweet promoting registration of verified organizations, Musk speak it is important to determine if someone really belongs to an organization to avoid impersonation, although it is unclear how that would be achieved through a separate $1,000 monthly subscription when The $8 monthly Twitter Blue subscription also offers for user verification. , although with the addition of an “affiliate badge”.
Before the expected verification removal on Saturday, stars like LeBron James and Dionne Warwick noted that they wouldn’t be willing to transfer the subscription fees to keep their verification badges.
“Guess my blue ✔️ will be gone soon because if you knew me I wouldn’t pay 5,” NBA star tweeted on Friday.
“I don’t pay for the green check. That money can (and will) go to my hot lattes,” Warwick speak.
The purge came as Twitter struggled to grow its revenue from advertising and subscriptions. According to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower, advertisers have spent $7.6 million on ads on Twitter over the past two months, compared with $71 million spent on ads in September and October. last year, before Musk’s Twitter took over.
Speaking at a Morgan Stanley investor conference in early March, Musk said Twitter would go bankrupt “in four months” after his acquisition but believes the social media platform “has a chance” to turn around. Turn the tide and be cash-flow positive next quarter thanks to massive cuts, including multiple layoffs, that have cut off the entire team at Twitter.
