Elon Musk Changes a Major Twitter Move After Outcry
The Twitter owner decides to keep one thing he was about to remove.
The Twitter owner decides to keep one thing he was about to remove.
Elon Musk has reversed his position on a key announcement he made March 27.
As part of his Twitter Blue overhaul, Musk had said that accounts would have to be verified to appear in the microblogging site's "For You" section, which is a collection of tweets a user can see when logging in.
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"Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations," Musk wrote. "That is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle. Voting in polls will require verification for the same reason."
But after a number complaints, Musk changed that policy March 28.
"Forgot to mention that accounts you follow directly will also be in For You, since you have explicitly asked for them," he tweeted.
The "For You" section surfaces posts for users that Twitter calculates will be of interest, based on their user behavior.
It is a means of exposure for influencers, whose tweets are shown to a large number of users when they appear in "For You."
The blue checkmark that designated a user's account is verified was free under Twitter until Musk took over in October 2022.
Musk decided to charge for it by integrating the blue badge into Twitter Blue, the platform's subscription service, which he reworked in an effort to build revenue.
Blue costs $7.99 per month if a user subscribes on the internet and $11 per month if they do so using the Apple (AAPL) - Get Free Report App Store, for example.
When he decided to charge for the checkmark, Musk said he would grant a grace period to users with the legacy blue badges.
"On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks," Twitter had said March 23.
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