The new Twitter Blue has arrived after a false start over the weekend. The service, which costs $8 per month in the United States, provides subscribers with instant account verification and a blue checkmark that appears on their profile page and alongside their tweets.
As of the time of writing, the subscription was not available on Android. It’s also unclear when Twitter Blue will be available outside of the markets where it was previously available.
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Other benefits announced by the Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk, such as the ability to see half as many ads and post longer videos, are also not yet available, with the subscription prompt indicating “coming soon.” Notably, the $8 monthly price is listed as a “limited-time offer” on the signup form.
Musk has positioned paid account verification as a way to make Twitter sustainable and increase trust in the platform since completing his takeover nearly two weeks ago.
Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months.
We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022
When Twitter Blue was briefly rolled out on Saturday, many were quick to point out that the service was likely to have the opposite effect because almost anyone could pay for verification and then theoretically change their account name to impersonate another user.
After a few verified “blue-check” users changed their accounts to impersonate Musk, he announced that users who impersonated others would have to explicitly state that they were running a parody account or face permanent suspension.
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Twitter’s verification situation became murkier early Wednesday when the social media platform briefly began labeling some major accounts as “Official,” including those belonging to celebrities, large publications, and politicians.
Musk announced a few hours later that he had “just killed” the deployment. “Please keep in mind that Twitter will do a lot of stupid things in the coming months,” he tweeted shortly afterward. “What works will be kept, and what does not will be changed.”
