The blue ticks that Twitter has been hoping to sell to all comers for €8 a month appear to have been taken off the table – at least in the short term – after the subscription service was plagued with impostors almost as soon as it went live.
Jesus Christ, the Pope, Donald Trump and the Elon Musk owned Tesla and Space X companies were just five of the fake Twitter accounts that had a blue tick attached to them after the company launched its new subscription service this week.
Many big name brands also had their accounts impersonated by people willing to pay €8 for a blue tick, a development which is likely to heap further pressure on Elon Musk who recently acquired the company for $44 billion.
Some brands had already paused their advertising spend with the company over concerns about the direction it was taking.
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Until recent days the blue tick was given to brands, celebrities and journalists to stop impersonation but the launch of the premium service appears to have created something of a free-for-all.
By Friday evening some users reported that the new subscription option for the blue verification check mark had disappeared, while a source told Reuters the offering has been dropped.
Twitter did not reply to a request for comment. Its communications department was largely gutted in a round of lay-offs announced last week.
On Thursday, in his first company-wide email, Musk warned that Twitter would not be able to “survive the upcoming economic downturn” if it failed to boost subscription revenue to offset falling advertising income.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that there are now two sets of blue ticks – one which is for accounts which were verified before the Musk takeover which are said to be “verified because it’s notable in government, news, entertainment, or another designated category”. The other blue tick makes it clear the account subscribes to Twitter Blue.
