Twitter Inc stopped its recently announced $8 blue tick membership service on Friday as fraudulent accounts proliferated, and new owner Elon Musk reinstated the “official” badge for some Twitter users.
Previously, the coveted blue check mark was reserved for verified accounts of politicians, celebrities, journalists, and other public people. However, a membership option, available to anybody willing to pay, was launched earlier this week to help Twitter increase income as Musk battles to keep advertisers.
The reversal is part of a turbulent two weeks at Twitter following Musk’s $44 billion takeover. Musk has dismissed over half of Twitter’s workers, ousted the company’s board of directors and key executives, and raised the risk of bankruptcy. On Thursday, the US Federal Trade Commission expressed “grave worry” about Twitter.
On Friday, some users noticed that the new subscription option for the blue verification check mark had vanished, while a source informed Reuters that the program had been discontinued.
Twitter did not respond to a comment request.
Fake accounts purporting to be big brands have popped up with the blue check since the new rollout, including Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX, as well as Roblox, Nestle, pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Lockheed Martin.
“To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts,” Twitter’s support account – which has the “official” tag – tweeted on Friday.
The label was originally introduced on Wednesday but then was “killed” by Musk just hours later.
Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co issued an apology after a fake account tweeted that insulin would be free, amid political backlash and scrutiny of the high prices of the medicine.
“We apologise to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account,” the company said, reiterating the name of its Twitter handle.
Several misleading tweets about Tesla from a verified account with the same profile picture as the company’s official account were also being circulated on the platform.
“Twitter has, over the past several years, worked to try to improve that [misinformation]. And it seems like Elon Musk has unravelled it within a matter of weeks,” said AJ Bauer, a professor at the University of Alabama.
Musk had said Twitter users engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying it as a “parody” account would be permanently suspended without a warning. Several fake brand accounts, including those of Nintendo and BP, have been suspended.
On Thursday, in his first company-wide email, Musk warned that Twitter would not be able to “survive the upcoming economic downturn” if it failed to boost subscription revenue to offset falling advertising income, three people who saw the message told Reuters.
Many companies, including General Motors and United Airlines, have paused or pulled back from advertising on the platform since Musk took over. In response, the billionaire said on Wednesday he aimed to turn Twitter into a force for truth and stop fake accounts.
Twitter is heavily dependent on ads, and about 90 percent of its revenue comes from advertisers. But each change that Musk is rolling out – or rolling back – makes the site less appealing for big brands.
“It has become chaos,” said Richard Levick, CEO of public relations firm Levick. “Who buys into chaos?”
A bigger issue for Musk might be the risk to his reputation as a model tech executive since the rollout of different types of verifications and other changes have been botched, Levick added.
“It’s another example of something not very well thought out, and that’s what happens when you rush,” Levick said. “Musk has been known as a trusted visionary and magician. He can’t lose that moniker, and that’s what’s at risk right now.”
