Twitter Blue relaunch delayed, might use new coloration checks for organizations

Twitter proprietor Elon Musk mentioned on Monday night that the corporate is planning to delay the relaunch of its $8 per 30 days Blue Verified service. Musk mentioned Twitter will “most likely use completely different coloration examine for organizations than people.”

Twitter Blue was launched earlier this month however was pulled after customers abused the brand new paid choice, which Musk hoped would drive new income to the platform. It allowed customers to pay for a Blue checkmark, beforehand reserved for verified customers.

Musk had earlier mentioned he deliberate to relaunch Twitter Blue on Nov. 29.

The paid Blue subscription service led to a plethora of pranksters creating imposter accounts on Twitter. It left the platform much more ripe for misinformation, and lots of cheaply acquired checkmarks have been used to impersonate manufacturers, politicians and celebrities with unflattering messages.

A consumer impersonating pharmaceutical big Eli Lily, for instance, tweeted “we’re excited to announce insulin is free now.”

Eli Lilly’s inventory worth dropped sharply after the false message was posted, and so did different pharmaceutical corporations together with AbbVie, which was additionally impersonated on Twitter. At the moment, main inventory indices have been constructive, amid a market rally.

Twitter has trialed utilizing two examine marks, together with a Blue one for paid and previously-verified customers and a grey “Official” checkmark for some manufacturers, akin to information organizations. However there was a complicated overlap, the place some accounts had each checkmarks. Musk killed the “Offical” checkmark the identical day it rolled out.

The delay comes after Musk gutted a lot of Twitter’s workers. About half of the corporate’s 7,500 workers have been laid off earlier this month. Then, final week, about one other 1,200 full-time workers left, in accordance with The New York Instances, after Musk demanded workers decide to working “lengthy hours at excessive depth” on his imaginative and prescient for “Twitter 2.0” or submit their resignations.

— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

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