Elon Musk Took Away a Free Twitter Feature (People Are Mad)

Users react badly to Musk's latest change.

Last year, during a period when Elon Musk was trying his best to get out of actually going through with his purchase of Twitter, my Saturday night was interrupted when a friend texted me something you never want to hear:

“Bro, I think you got hacked.”

Sure enough, I tried to log into Twitter, and my password was changed. I looked at my account, and someone (or some bot, really) had posted nearly hundreds of messages about NFTs. 

Don’t Miss: American Airlines Sued Over Alleged Negligence

It took several frustrating, annoying weeks and lots of follow-up emails to Twitter’s  (TWTR) - Get Free Report customer service reps, but eventually I was given back access to my account. Once I was able to tweet again, I did something I should have done a long time ago, and signed up for two-factor authentication in order to keep my account safe.

In case you are unfamiliar, with two-factor authentication you either have to enter a code that is texted or emailed to you, or you have to click on an app, before you can log into your account. It’s an effective way to keep your account safe, and now you have to pay extra for it.

Twitter Blue Strikes Again

Today, I signed onto Twitter, even though I’m not sure why I still use the site anymore, except out of reflexive habit. And I was informed that if I want to continue to use the text message authentication, I would have to sign up for the company’s $8-per-month Twitter Blue subscription. 

I’m…not inclined to do that, and I’m not happy about this change. It turns out, a lot of users share my sentiments. Now, users have to use a third-party authentication app, like Google Authenticator, Duo Mobile and Twilio’s Authy, and the change can be made on Twitter app or go to “security and account access.” 

Musk has tweeted that the change was due to Twitter getting hit with $60 million per year in bogus SMS charges. 

But many Twitter users aren’t buying this excuse, and are not happy to lose a formerly free and crucial service. And they let Musk know this on his own site.