Elon Musk has disclosed the rationale behind his decision to relaunch Twitter Blue.
What Happened: Musk took to Twitter to explain the reason behind relaunching the controversial Twitter Blue subscription, which would allow users to get a verification badge by paying a monthly premium of $8. The Blue verification plan was rolled out briefly and then withdrawn.
We aren’t doing well at surfacing tweets from less prominent handles, as it’s almost impossible to distinguish between authentic humans vs bots/trolls.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 1, 2022
This is why $8/month with phone and optional ID verification, as well as organizational affiliation, is so important.
Musk hopes the $8 blue subscription fee would drive new revenue to the platform. A few days ago, he said that even he was paying the $8 fee for the “verified” blue badge.
Why It's Important: Musk's decision to monetize the blue verification badge received flak from many people, including the likes of author Stephen King.
The relaunch led to a rise in the number of verified-but-fake accounts. These accounts impersonated leading brands and personalities, creating chaos on the platform. To curb the growth of such fake accounts, Twitter rolled out the "official" badge and a feature to enable organizations to manage and authenticate affiliated accounts.
The microblogging site also introduced another feature to let users add a "confirmed phone number" mark on their profile to differentiate authentic users from bots.
Musk, who took over Twitter in October, also stated that the platform is purging spam and fraudulent accounts, which may drop users' follower count.
Read Next: Elon Musk Says Some Twitter Users Should Expect To See Follower Count Drop: Here's Why
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