Twitter Blue ‘probably’ coming back by end of next week

Twitter Blue will probably come back by the end of next week, billionaire Elon Musk said after a string of chaotic developments at the social network.

Twitter Blue will probably come back by the end of next week, billionaire Elon Musk said.

He made the comment in response to a question asked on Twitter, which has paused its recently announced $US8 ($A12) blue check subscription service due to a proliferation of fake accounts.

The blue check mark used to be only for the verified accounts of people such as journalists, politicians and famous personalities, however Musk recently unveiled a subscription service for anyone who wanted to pay.

On Friday some users reported that it was not possible to sign up to Twitter Blue any more, and the newly received blue ticks had disappeared.

It was the latest in a string of chaotic developments at the social network, which has lurched back and forth on the question of account verification since Musk’s $US44 billion buyout late last month.

Probably end of next week

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2022

Last week Twitter considered adding a grey official tag to notable accounts, such as businesses, that would indicate they are who they said they were, however Musk backtracked.

The @TwitterSupport account tweeted early Friday that a grey checkmark indicating an “official” account was coming back, only days after it was introduced – then was almost immediately scrapped.

“To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts,” the profile announced.

The rollout of the label appeared inconsistent: it appeared briefly then disappeared from the network’s own account, @Twitter.

By Friday morning, the firm had also disabled sign-ups for Twitter Blue, the feature touted by free-speech proponent Musk as bringing “power to the people” by offering ordinary users a verified blue tick.

Elon Musk is also cracking down on parody accounts. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

“Apart from being an aesthetic nightmare when looking at the Twitter feed, it was simply another way of creating a two-class system,” the Tesla CEO was reported as telling advertisers by Fortune magazine.

“It wasn’t addressing the core problem.”

Musk also announced the creation of a “parody” subscript.

“We’re adding a ‘Parody’ subscript to clarify,” Musk wrote on Twitter.

“To be more precise, accounts doing parody impersonations. Basically, tricking people is not OK. Going forward, accounts engaged in parody must include ’parody’ in their name, not just in bio.”

– With AFP