Just last week, Twitter confirmed that it would be offering paid Twitter verification for USD7.99/month (~RM38/month) on iOS. This was quickly followed by the 'official' label for, well, official accounts. But the Twitter Blue update was short-lived, as it got suspended this weekend.
According to Zoe Schiffer, Twitter Blue has been suspended because the company is trying to address the issue of identity impersonation. Now that any account can get 'verified' just by paying, there has been a sharp increase in fake accounts trying to impersonate brands and celebrities. There was even a guy who paid the money just to impersonate the Tesla account.
The announcement was posted on Slack: "An update on what we did tonight: hid the entry point to Twitter Blue, added the 'official' label for ONLY advertisers. Note: here is at least one way for users to sign up for Blue. Legacy Blue users can go to subscriptions and upgrade" 2/— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) November 11, 2022
Interestingly, Twitter accounts that were previously verified can still upgrade to Twitter Blue. Also, those who are already subscribed will keep their extra benefits. Everyone else will have to wait for the Twitter development team to fix the issue. If you ask us, the best way to fix it is to manually approve the accounts. However, that might be tough at the moment due to Twitter's lowered headcount from the mass layoff.
While this problem shouldn't affect Malaysia, local brands with unverified Twitter accounts might have to look out for impersonators in the future. With that said, do you think it's still worth getting Twitter Blue? Share your thoughts in the comments, and stay tuned to TechNave for more news like this.
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