Elon Musk postpones controversial new Twitter subscription

After ten days of much controversy surrounding the new owner’s flagship project, Elon Musk announced on Tuesday that the launch of a new paid subscription to Twitter has been postponed until November 29.

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“The relaunch of BlueVerified has been postponed to November 29 to ensure it is concrete,” the social network’s general manager tweeted.

Before the Tesla boss took over Twitter on October 27, the platform offered a free identity verification service for notorious organizations and individuals on the one hand, and a paid subscription for additional options, called Twitter Blue, on the other.

Elon Musk launched the integrity of this subscription to add authentication so all users, regardless of their notoriety, could get it for eight dollars a month.

The new Twitter Blue was activated to total cacophony on iPhones a week ago, days after the company laid off half of its 7,500 employees.

Over the course of 48 hours, several accounts impersonated celebrities or large corporations, from LeBron James to Nintendo. Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly was forced to apologize Thursday after a successful tweet promising free insulin with a blue checkmark from an account under its name.

On Friday, the ability to subscribe to “Twitter Blue” disappeared, and an internal memo published by some US media said the service had been suspended to “address spoofing issues.”

Elon Musk promised on Tuesday that in the system, which will launch on November 29, “any name change will lose the blue tick until the name is verified by Twitter.”

He also said that people who don’t subscribe will lose Blue Tick (if they get it for free) in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the social network rolled out a new gray “Official” badge last Wednesday for sensational accounts.

Elon Musk decreed the same day that he was dropping the new label, before director of product development Esther Crawford intervened to explain that the badge would initially be reserved for governments and corporations.

The dismissals continued this week amid Twitter chaos. An engineer has been fired from a tweet by Elon Musk after publicly questioning the claims of the eccentric leader who sees himself as the ultimate defender of free expression.