Suspended? Coming back in a week? Confusion reigns over $8/month Twitter Blue

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The option to subscribe to the new $8/month Twitter Blue disappeared over the weekend - but might return by the end of this week, according to various reports.

With Twitter’s much-reduced comms department not responding to queries from any media, and the company making no official statements, the status of its new premium service is hard to gauge.

But the option to add a new account does appear to have been temporarily disabled following a spate of impersonations - including an “Eli Lily” account that sent the pharmaceutical firm’s stock into a dive after it tweeted that insulin would be free, and accounts imitating Tesla and Starlink, two firms owned by Elon Musk.

The move came as The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that more big advertisers are suspending their activity on Twitter. The New York Times covered an upsurge in misinformation about vote counting in the US mid-term elections, and TikTok made hay with expansion (including hiring in NZ as Twitter cut back).

The new, US$7.99 per month Twitter Blue launched for the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand earlier this month as Musk tweeted:

Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.

Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022

Previously, you could not pay - or even apply - for a blue verification tick. The account authentication was awarded by Twitter staff.

Under the new “power to the people” system, anyone who paid their US$7.99 automatically got a blue tick.

Immediately, there were problems. The BBC reported that a slew of QAnon accounts had purchased verification.

A “Tony Blair” verified account traded quips with a verified “George Bush” account about how they missed killing Iraqis. Sports stars, celebrities and multiple brands were impersonated. On a “Nintendo of America” verified account, Mario gave Twitter users the finger. “LeBron James” said he was leaving the Lakers.

Musk made a series of changes on the fly in an effort to stop the chaos - including temporarily introducing a grey “official” account tick for some advertisers and government users - but that effort was soon abandoned.

The entrepreneur needs Twitter Blue as an alternative source of revenue as the ad market slows and some agencies boycott his service - against the backdrop of the need to pay around US$1 billion in interest per year to service the debt taken out to fund the US$44 billion acquisition.

Amid an exodus of remaining executives, Musk told Twitter staff on Thursday that Twitter had negative cash flow of several billion dollars (without specifying if that was an annual figure). He mentioned the possibility of bankruptcy. The new owner tweeted earlier that the social media firm - which has lost money in eight of the past 10 years - was losing US$4 million per day.

Rolling out soon, Twitter will enable organizations to identify which other Twitter accounts are actually associated with them

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2022

Last week, Musk tweeted, “Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers.” On Friday, he reportedly told staff he had sold another US$4b in Tesla stock “to save Twitter”.

Efforts to stamp out the fakes were complicated by the fact Twitter has just laid off 3700 people, or roughly half its staff - including members of content safety and moderation teams.

The re-tooled subscription option is expected within days. Maybe.

In a Tweet this morning, Musk promised a feature that will, somehow, “enable organizations to identify which other Twitter accounts are actually associated with them.”

The feature is coming “soon”.