Twitter on Saturday launched an $8-a-month subscription service that includes a blue tick now granted to verified accounts as new owner Elon Musk overhauls the platform’s verification system.
In an update for Apple’s iOS devices, Twitter said users who “sign up now” can receive the blue checkmark next to their name, “just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow.”
The change marks the end of Twitter’s current verification system, launched in 2009 to prevent impersonations of high-profile accounts such as celebrities and politicians. Prior to the overhaul, Twitter had about 423,000 verified accounts, including a large number of top journalists from around the world whom the company verified regardless of how many followers they had.
Experts have expressed serious concerns about the upheaval in the platform’s verification system, which, while not perfect, helped Twitter’s 238 million daily users determine if the accounts they were getting…
