In an attempt to clean up spam tweets on Twitter, Elon Musk announced that only verified Twitter accounts will be eligible to appear on the main For You recommendations of the social media platform starting 15th April. He said the move is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over as otherwise, it will be a hopeless losing battle. He added that a similar move will be imposed for polls where verification will also be required.
Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2023
The is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle.
Voting in polls will require verification for same reason.
Unless you’re previously verified by Twitter as an organisation or a public figure, this means normal users will have to subscribe to Twitter Blue in order to be verified with a blue tick. If you sign up from their website, Malaysian users will have to pay RM35 per month or RM369 per year for a Twiter Blue subscription. It will cost more if you subscribe via the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
Besides getting the blue tick, Twitter Blue claims to boost your ranking in replies and search results as well as providing the ability to Undo and Edit Tweets. Paying subscribers will also get to see 50% fewer ads than normal.
Some have criticised the move suggesting that Twitter should invest more money in talent and AI tech to solve the bots issue. Limiting the visibility of tweets in For You is seen as shadow-banning users who don’t wish to pay for Twitter Blue. Defending the suggestion, Elon Musk said he predicts Twitter will be the only platform you can trust.
My prediction is that this will be the only platform you can trust
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2023
Last month, Mark Zuckerberg announced that it will charge users for having a verified blue tick on Facebook and Instagram which is estimated to cost about RM60/month. Zuckerberg claims that providing protection and support for users will cost them a significant amount of money. With a Meta Verified subscription, Zuckerberg claims that it will help cover direct support and it will enable Meta to be more effective in finding and removing imposter accounts on their platform.
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