LONDON – Twitter has restarted its premium membership after a disastrous launch which saw the platform flooded with imposters.
Elon Musk made expanding the Twitter Blue service a focus after his takeover in October, and chief among the changes was granting members the profile checkmark previously reserved for verified accounts.
But the move quickly descended into farce, as pranksters impersonated the likes of ex-president George W Bush, former prime minister Tony Blair, and the official page of gaming giant Nintendo.
It forced Twitter to pause the service, and it relaunched on Monday after a month on ice, still priced at US$8.
Twitter Blue is currently available for in-app purchase on iOS only in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, with plans to expand. New Twitter accounts will not be able to sign up for Twitter Blue for 90 days.
Signing up gives users access to an edit button, the ability to post longer videos, and they will have their posts amplified and see fewer adverts.
Blue’s return will also pave the way for Twitter to ditch its “official” tags, which were added to some accounts to distinguish between those who were verified under the previous system and those who were paying members.
Examples included sports institutions, businesses and media outlets, which will soon have the labels replaced by either gold or grey checkmarks.
Ahead of Blue’s comeback, Twitter’s billionaire owner also teased changes to the platform’s character limit.
Responding to a question about suggestions that the boundary would go from 280 up to a whopping 4,000, Musk simply replied with a one word answer: ‘Yes.’
The current limit has been in place for five years, having originally stood at 140.
Musk’s plan to increase it by more than 1,300 percent has seen some pushback from users, with some concerned that it would compromise one of Twitter’s defining characteristics and risk making it more akin to Facebook. – Sky News
