Musk Delays Relaunch Of Twitter Blue Until There Is ‘High Confidence’ On Stopping Impersonators

Topline

Elon Musk on Monday said Twitter delay the planned relaunch of its Twitter Blue subscription service—which allows users to pay $8 a month for a verified badge—until there is “high confidence” in stopping impersonator accounts, a serious issue which marred the initial rollout of the service and triggered chaos on the platform.

Key Facts

Announcing the move in a tweet, Musk said Twitter may use different color checkmarks for organizations and individuals.

Last week, Musk had set November 29 as the date for Twitter Blue’s relaunch saying he wanted to make sure the service was “rock solid.”

According to the Verge, Musk informed Twitter employees about the delay before the public announcement telling them “we’re not going to launch until there’s high confidence in protecting against…significant impersonations.”

After announcing the delay Musk once again bragged about Twitter’s recent growth in daily active users, claiming the number had grown by 1.6 million in the past week to a total of 259.6 million.

What We Don’t Know

Musk’s idea to use different colored verification badges for individuals and organizations on Twitter may help alleviate some of its issues with regards to impersonators but it is unclear how this will exactly work. Musk also doesn’t specify if the alternate color badges will only be available to organizations who are already verified on Twitter or will it also be extended to those who chose to pay $8 a month to acquire a verification badge. Unlike the original Twitter verification service, Twitter Blue does not authenticate an individual or organization’s identity before giving them the verified badge. Twitter currently uses a badge with a blue checkmark on all verified accounts—both for individuals and organizations. The platform recently also added a gray “official” badge under some important verified accounts in an effort to deal with impersonators.