Sat 12 November 2022:
On Friday, Twitter Inc. halted its recently announced $8 blue tick subscription service as fraudulent accounts mushroomed and new owner Elon Musk reinstated the “official” badge for some social network users.
Before, only verified accounts of public figures including journalists, legislators, and well-known people could display the coveted blue check mark. But earlier this week, Twitter launched a membership option that is available to anyone willing to pay in order to increase revenue as Musk battles to keep advertisers.
On Friday, a number of customers said that the brand-new subscription option for the blue verification check mark was no longer available, and a source told Reuters that the service has been terminated.
A request for comment from Twitter received no response.
Since the latest launch, fake accounts impersonating well-known companies—including Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX, as well as Roblox, Nestle, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, and Lockheed Martin—have appeared with the blue check.
“To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts,” Twitter’s support account – which has the “official” tag – tweeted on Friday.
The label was originally introduced on Wednesday but then was “killed” by Musk just hours later.
Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co issued an apology after a fake account tweeted that insulin would be free, amid political backlash and scrutiny of the high prices of the medicine.
“We apologise to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account,” the company said, reiterating the name of its Twitter handle.
On the platform, a verified user with the identical profile image as the company’s official account sent out a number of false tweets regarding Tesla.
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