Despite the massive fanfare from Elon Musk in hopes of generating more revenue, the Twitter Blue option is gone for users who wanted to add a verification option.
The option is no longer available in the iOS app store as of Friday, November 11.
Shortly after Musk took over Twitter in a $44 billion deal, he launched a new version of the Twitter Blue subscription service.
The billionaire added the blue authentication badge for the identity of the account owner and nearly doubled the price to $7.99.
After the option was made available, countless accounts were created parodying legitimate accounts, even Tesla (TSLA) – Get Free Report, of which Musk serves as CEO.
The abuse also spread with impersonators pretending to be public companies or well-known people. One account pretended to be Pepsi with a Twitter handle of @PEPICO and tweeted, “Coke is better.”
Some parody accounts stated information such as giving away free insulin and could prove to be branding nightmares for major companies.
Other accounts were more humorous in nature, parodying George Washington or Jesus Christ.
Several advertisers have already suspended their ads on Twitter, including General Motors, a spokesperson told TheStreet.
Twitter currently generates more than 91% of its revenue from advertising.
The company added the grey “Official” tag on Nov. 10 to avoid more attempts of impersonation, the company said.
“To combat impersonation, we’ve added an “Official” label to some accounts,” the company tweeted.
This was a reversal after Twitter said on Nov. 9, “we’re not currently putting an “Official” label on accounts but we are aggressively going after impersonation and deception.”
While Musk has sought to make a mark on his purchase of Twitter, his plan to rapidly change the company by adding and removing options such as the blue check verification option and adding the grey “official” tag and firing 50% of the staff, appears to be rash and not a long-term strategy.
Musk obtained $13 billion of debt with several investment banks to finance this acquisition, which was eventful at best.
The billionaire’s quest to find new sources of income to revive the microblogging website appear have been challenging.
The blue checkmark on Twitter was previously reserved for politicians, companies, media, institutions, government agencies, and celebrities to state that their identity was authenticated. This badge was previously free.
Source: https://www.thestreet.com/technology/twitter-blue-is-suspended?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO&yptr=yahoo