Twitter Inc. said Friday that it had reinstated the “official” gray verification badge given to some accounts, days after it was removed.
The move follows a surge in fake accounts on the platform after new boss Elon Musk allowed users to pay US$8 for a monthly subscription for the coveted blue tick previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, actors and other personalities important
Fake accounts of several big brands have appeared with the blue brand, including Tesla and Musk’s SpaceX, as well as Roblox, Nestlé and Lockheed Martin.
To combat phishing, we’ve added an “Official” tag to some accounts.
—@TwitterSupport
“To combat phishing, we’ve added an ‘official’ tag to some accounts,” Twitter’s support account tweeted Friday.
Musk tweeted on Wednesday that he had “killed” the new stamp, just hours after launching it.
Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co issued an apology after an impostor account tweeted that insulin would be free, amid political backlash and scrutiny over the drug’s high prices.
“We apologize to those who received a misleading message from a fake Lilly account,” the company said, reiterating the name of its Twitter handle.
Among other examples, a series of misleading tweets about Tesla from a verified account with the same profile picture as the company’s official account were circulating on the platform.
“Twitter has worked over the last few years to try to improve this [misinformation]. And Elon Musk seems to have figured it out in a matter of weeks,” said AJ Bauer, a professor at the University of Alabama.
Meanwhile, several users said the option to sign up for Twitter Blue, the $8 subscription service that includes blue check, was gone.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.
“Checked with the Twitter API [application programming interface] and the Blue Verified Twitter in-app purchase no longer appears for production,” app researcher Jane Manchun Wong said in a tweet.
In Canada, users received an error message with a note saying that Twitter Blue will not be available in the country in the future.
suspensions
Musk had said on Sunday that Twitter users who engage in impersonation without clearly specifying it as a “parody” account will be permanently suspended without warning.
While some had revealed that it was a parody account in its description, several other fake brand accounts were suspended, including Nintendo and BP.
Earlier in the day, Musk said his companies will be well positioned in 2023 despite the possibility of a tough economy. Musk’s tweet came a day after he raised the possibility of Twitter going bankrupt. In his first company-wide email, Musk warned that Twitter could not “survive the next economic downturn” if it does not increase subscription revenue to offset falling advertising revenue, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. saw the message