New York, Nov 7 (PTI) Twitter is planning to delay providing verification tokens to subscribers of its new USD 7.99 per month subscription service until after Tuesday’s US midterm elections, amid concerns about the spread of false information. said the media report.
The midterm elections on November 8 will decide control of the US Congress and other important governments.
The social media company made the call a day after it announced it was opening the program for subscribers to receive a verification token on their profile for a monthly fee.
The New York Times reported Sunday that Twitter “is delaying rolling out verification tokens to subscribers of its new $7.99-a-month subscription service until after Tuesday’s midterm elections.”
“Power for the people. Your account will receive a blue tick, just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow,” Twitter said in the blue tick announcement on Saturday.
Some Twitter users and employees had expressed concern that the new badges “could cause confusion ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections because users could easily create verified accounts — say, posing as President Biden or as a lawmaker or the media and by publishing false information about the results of the vote – which could potentially sow discord,” the NYT report said.
A Twitter employee, in an internal company communication, asked why the social network “was making such a dangerous change before the election, which has the potential to cause election interference,” the report said.
A manager working on the verification badge project said that “we have made the decision to move the release of this version to November 9, after the midterm elections,” he said.
Shortly after Musk bought Twitter, the billionaire entrepreneur orchestrated significant changes at the company, including cutting the workforce in half.
“In terms of reducing Twitter’s power, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4 million a day. “All those fired were offered 3 months of severance, which is 50 percent more than required by law,” Musk tweeted on Friday.
The NYT report said Musk and his advisers “have also discussed various ways to get more money out of Twitter.
In addition to the checkmark program, they have talked about adding paid direct messaging — which will allow users to send private messages to high-profile users — to the service, as well as “paywalled” video, which will means that some videos cannot be viewed unless users pay a fee.” In a series of tweets about Twitter’s changes, Musk said “I delete all day, but it’s going to cost $8” and that Twitter will soon add the ability to attach long text to tweets, ending the “absurdity” of the notepad views. .
He said that going forward, any Twitter action that engages in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended.
“Previously, we issued a warning before the suspension, but now that we are doing extensive verification, there will be no warning. This will be clearly identified as a condition of signing up for Twitter Blue. Any name change at all it will cause temporary loss with a verified token,” he said.
Musk noted that widespread verification will democratize journalism and empower the voice of the people, and Twitter should become the most accurate source of information for the world.
“This is our mission,” he added. PTI YAS VM AKJ VM
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