- Elon Musk says only verified subscribers will be recommended in Twitter's timeline.
- Voting in polls will also be exclusive to users verified under Twitter Blue.
Elon Musk says from April 15 only Twitter's paying subscribers will have their posts recommended to other users on its "For You" feed and be allowed to vote in polls. These features are currently available to all users.
Musk $4 news of this change on Monday, saying that it is "the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle," he said.
Musk rolled out his new verification system, including $4 shortly after acquiring the platform for $44 billion in late October. This system allowed any user to pay from $4 for Twitter's blue verified checkmark – the blue tick appears next to a user's name and was previously free to accounts of "public interest" such as those belonging to politicians, celebrities, and journalists.
The early roll-out was $4 and had to be paused briefly after it was $4 masquerading as verified businesses or public figures, causing $4. The company $4 in December, bringing in $4 for some business and government accounts.
Since then, Twitter has been introducing features to try and encourage more Twitter Blue sign-ups, including a way to edit tweets and a longer character limit for subscribers. In early February, $4 that the new system only had around 300,000 subscribers.
Last week, Twitter announced plans to remove legacy blue ticks from accounts that were verified under Twitter's old system $4 — which is also $4. Musk has publically voiced his disdain for Twitter's old verification system on several occasions, once $4 it "deeply corrupted."
Musk, who has consistently said he plans to $4 said that the changes announced on Monday are a way to address issues with bots. However, he also said that bot accounts can also be verified as long as they "follow terms of service" and "don't impersonate a human."
In an earlier $4 on Monday, the billionaire claimed that paid verification makes it more expensive to run bots and makes them much easier to identify.
"It's now trivial to spin up 100k human-like bots for less than a penny per account," he said. "Paid account social media will be the only social media that matters."
The Tesla CEO also plans to charge businesses $1,000 to keep their blue, gold, or grey checkmarks beyond April 1, a move that has been unpopular with firms. One company founder $4 "outlandish" and said it made the checkmark "meaningless."
Last month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also announced a $4 — "Meta Verified" — that will give verified badges to Instagram or Facebook users who $4
Insider contacted Twitter for comment. The company responded with an automated message that didn't address the inquiry.