It was a month ago. On November 9, the launch of the new Twitter Blue, the paid subscription to authenticate your account on Elon Musk’s social network, was done in a great cacophony. For 48 hours, many accounts had posed as those of celebrities or big companies, from basketball player LeBron James to Nintendo. These impersonations prompted Twitter to suspend Twitter Blue on November 11. The project was then suspended, then postponed several times.
The world’s richest man hopes those worries are now behind him. The billionaire launched this Monday, December 12, a new paid subscription formula to Twitter including account authentication, one of his flagship projects for the platform since its acquisition at the end of October for 44 billion dollars. This new formula is supposed to diversify the sources of income of the social network, shunned by some advertisers since the billionaire bought it and imposed his liberal vision in terms of content moderation, while Twitter’s financial health largely depends on its advertising revenue.
- Price, authentication… The conditions
The new subscription costs $8 per month if users subscribe via the website, and $11 per month if they go through the mobile application of an Apple-branded device (iPhone or iPad). Twitter hasn’t provided an official explanation for the price difference, but Elon Musk has in the past criticized Apple’s 30% commission on spending through the App Store.
As the first attempt of the launch had been marked by an outbreak of fake accounts, the conditions for authenticating were tightened. In particular, users must have an account for at least 90 days, associated with a verified phone number, and which does not appear “misleading or misleading”. They must also have been active at least once in the previous month and not have changed their profile picture or their name on Twitter during the previous week. This subscription will initially be available in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
The San Francisco company did not say when Twitter Blue would be available on other smartphones (operated by Android, i.e. Google), or at what price. Users who already have a checkmark following the old free personality authentication system will be able, a priori, to keep it without paying for the moment, according to the details of the conditions of use published by Twitter.
- Less advertising, more personalized options… The advantages
The main interest for people agreeing to disburse money is a check mark supposed to certify the identity of the subscriber, blue for individuals, gold for companies, and, later in the week, gray for institutions. Tweets from followers will be considered more important than tweets from free users, and will therefore appear higher in replies and searches.
Twitter also promised those who agree to pay that they will see half as many ads as others, that they will be able to upload longer videos and remove a tweet after sending it but before it has not been seen by others on the platform. They will also have access to more options to customize the application and features that the social network is testing, according to the company.
By clicking on the badge attached to an account, it is possible to know if the user is a subscriber to Twitter Blue or if he has kept his blue tick free. In this case, the brand indicates that it is a “past verified account. It may be notable or it may not be”. Before Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the platform offered a free identity verification service for organizations and personalities on the one hand, and a paid subscription to additional options on the other.