Twitter has published a policy change saying that newly created Twitter accounts will have to wait 90 days before being allowed to subscribe to the new Twitter Blue plan and get verified. This is likely to avoid impersonation and spam from verified accounts.
“Newly created Twitter accounts will not be able to subscribe to Twitter Blue for 90 days. We may also impose waiting periods for new accounts in the future at our discretion without notice,” the company said on its FAQ page about Twitter Blue.
Prior to this, the Elon Musk-led company just said that new accounts created after November 9 won’t be able to purchase the $8 Twitter subscription plan.
The old terms were published during the rushed rollout of Twitter Blue, which caused havoc and a barrage of verified accounts that started impersonating brands, celebrities and athletes. Because of fake verified accounts tweeting misinformation, shares of companies like Eli Lilly and Lockheed Martin took a dip.
To avoid impersonation, the company has prohibited verified users from changing their names. Earlier this week, Musk said that paid accounts will lose the verified checkmark until the social network confirms that the new name follows its rules. However, the company hasn’t made any formal policy around that.
With new release, changing your verified name will cause loss of checkmark until name is confirmed by Twitter to meet Terms of Service
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022
Twitter is in the soup with the new paid plan. On the one hand, Musk has promised that subscribers will get prominence on the notification tab, replies and searches — the company briefly moved the verified notification tab’s position to place it before all notifications too. On the other hand, after assessing the initial results from the verification rollout, it clearly has to thwart spam and impersonation to prevent more advertisers from leaving the platform.
Twitter has switched the verified notifications tab to be the default first position
Old <——> NEW pic.twitter.com/kxCthkUHlF
— Matt Navarra (I quit X. Follow me on Threads) (@MattNavarra) November 5, 2022
As a result, Musk paused the rollout of Twitter Blue last week. He also promised to relaunch the relaunched Twitter Blue program on November 29, but in Elonverse things can change rather quickly.
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