After delaying it several times, Twitter chief Elon Musk has announced that the microblogging platform is again halting the relaunch of Twitter Blue services, which was scheduled for this month. Musk had said the service would relaunch on November 29th, which has now been postponed again. The new Twitter owner added that he would pause the relaunch of Twitter Blue “until there is high confidence of stopping impersonation.”
Musk has said the platform will probably use different colour checks for organisations than individuals. Post his takeover, the world’s richest person had announced the coveted blue tick on Twitter, which was manually handed out previously, would now be a marker of Twitter Blue, the premium subscription model.
Twitter Blue was initially available a few weeks ago but was quickly removed when it was overloaded with multiple fake “verified” accounts post Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter.
Twitter user’s take on the halt
Several Twitter users came up with the idea that instead of pausing the relaunch of Twitter Blue due to concerns about fake accounts, the microblogging platform could ask for identity verification for users.
“Why not do an ID verification which is what verified has always been. Charge a one time identity verification fee to any user who wants it to handle the ID processing cost. Have an exception for institutions, government, etc.” a user wrote.
“Notifications have become a mess with all the new blue checks. Adding new notification filters (eg, notifications from users with follower count > X) would be super helpful,” another user tweeted.
Twitter Blue features
Users opting for the Twitter Blue service will get a blue verified checkmark, just like celebrities, firms, or public figures. Not only that, but the subscribers will also get prioritised in replies, searches, and mentions. As per several reports, Twitter Blue subscribers can also post longer audio and video files. Plus, they will have to go through half the ads, which will be more relevant to them. The Twitter Blue subscription will also let users edit their tweets.
Twitter Blue subscription price in India
While Twitter charges $7.99 for the Twitter Blue subscription in countries such as the US, Australia, and Canada, the same service will be priced at Rs 719 (about $8.91) in India.