Elon Musk postpones Twitter verification plan

Twitter

Twitter will delay rolling out account verifications for its paid Twitter Blue subscription plan until after the midterm elections.

The decision to push the new feature comes a day after the platform launched an updated version of its iOS app that promises to let users who pay a monthly subscription fee get a blue tick on their profiles.

This is a feature proposed by CEO Elon Musk as a way to combat spam on the platform.

The app’s latest update was detailed on Apple’s App Store, stating that users will now have to pay €8 ($7.99) per month for the company’s Twitter Blue verification feature, “just like celebrities , companies and politicians you already follow”.

The check mark has long been used to confirm the authenticity of government officials, prominent figures and journalists.

Testing of the service on Saturday afternoon suggested that the rollout of the feature was not yet complete before Sunday’s decision.

A newly created Twitter account that chose the paid feature did not display the badge on its public profile. Twitter also appeared to still be charging an old price of 5 euros ($4.99).

The decision to delay the rollout comes after the entire decision to charge users for verification has faced widespread public backlash.

In a show of defiance, several celebrities on the platform over the weekend posed as Musk and revealed a possible flaw in the Blue Check system.