Elon Musk is "punting" back Twitter verification relaunch

San Francisco, California - Elon Musk announced it will be another two weeks before Twitter reactivates the subscription option for its blue tick verification feature after failing to successfully revamp the system after the tech Billionaire took the company over.

Elon Musk announced that he was pushing back the relaunch of Twitter's blue tick verification system.
Elon Musk announced that he was pushing back the relaunch of Twitter's blue tick verification system.  © Collage: REUTERS

Previously, celebrities, politicians, journalists and other public figures were required to provide proof of identification before receiving the blue-tick verification badge on Twitter. Under the new model, all customers who subscribe for $8 a month will be given verified accounts.

However, the introduction of the subscription model last week lead to a rise in fake celebrity and company accounts, including for US basketball star LeBron James and Nintendo, forcing Twitter to quickly put it on hold again after a few days.

New owner Musk had announced the function would be reinstated by the end of this week, but has now backtracked on the promise.

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"Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid," the Twitter chief executive tweeted.

Musk has argued that authentication through payment services and the app platforms of Apple and Google was sufficient, so that Twitter could do without its own identity verification.

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Musk also threatened to crack down on fake accounts and parody accounts, saying that anyone who operates a profile under another person's name and does not mark it as a parody is to be banned without warning.

There's no visible difference between the blue verification ticks under the new system and those on older accounts until clicking on the icon reveals a description.

Musk completed his $44-billion-dollar takeover of the platform last week, immediately cutting the workforce and implementing the monthly subscription fee for users to be verified on the platform.

Cover photo: Collage: REUTERS

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