Twitter CEO Elon Musk has announced that a shake-up to the social media platform’s ‘blue tick’ rules is set to take place from 15 April.
The paid Twitter Blue feature offers users blue-tick verification for US$7 (£5.70) a month, alongside a series of additional features.
Following the move, only verified accounts will see their posts recommended to other users – with the ability to vote in polls also set to require verification.
Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations.
The 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 same reason.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2023
According to Musk, the step has been has been taken to “address advanced AI bot swarms taking over,” however this latest development will only serve to cause more uncertainty for brands and advertisers using the platform.
With the widespread proliferation of “fake” verified accounts late last year which saw many major brands and personalities being impersonated by parody accounts who had purchased the Twitter Blue feature, advertisers have began deserting the platform en masse.
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Former Dentsu chairman Nick Waters even urged brands to step away from the platform until the situation had stabilised to avoid a potential public backlash.
This latest step was taken to fight the spread of so-called ‘bots’ across Twitter, as these can severely impact a platform’s ability to develop its advertising revenue and paid subscriptions.
Given that modern AI can solve any “prove you’re not a robot” tests, it’s now trivial to spin up 100k human-like bots for less than a penny per account.
Paid verification increases bot cost by ~10,000% & makes it much easier to identify bots by phone & CC clustering.
Obvious…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2023
The increased accessibility and now increased influence of paid Twitter Blue users has alarmed some however, who believe that the changes will enable potential rogue actors greater power to spread misinformation.
A former insider from Twitter’s verification team told the BBC: “Our number one goal for my team was to protect users from real world harm and this screams the complete opposite to me.”
“Verified users will use their power and their presence on the platform to influence anything from misinformation to actual harm for users all around the world. It’s a silent threat that no one is seeing.”
