Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
Twitter wants you to pay if you want to be seen and heard on the platform
- April 15 onwards, only paid Twitter Blue users will be showcased through the “For You” algorithm.
- Voting in polls will also become restricted to paid Twitter Blue users.
- A Twitter Blue subscription costs $8 per month.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has announced two new changes for the social media platform. Starting April 15, Twitter will only be showcasing paid Twitter Blue subscribers through its “For You” recommendations. Further, voting in polls will also become restricted to paid users only. These announcements were made through Elon Musk‘s official Twitter profile.
A Twitter Blue subscription costs $8 per month when signed up through the web and more when signed up through mobile apps. However, beyond the monetary requirements, no further verification steps are in place to confirm a user’s identity. Any user can choose to remain pseudonymous while being “verified” on Twitter.
In the past, accounts wanting to have a “verified” blue tick would need to pass through a layer of identity verification before they got verified. Twitter also recently announced that this legacy “verified” program has been sunset. Users verified under the legacy program will lose their “verified” status on April 1. So the only way to remain “verified” on Twitter from April 1 onwards is through a Twitter Blue subscription.
Musk’s reasoning for these new changes points to a bot swarm problem that could be plaguing the social media platform. However, no further details have been provided for the same. Since the subscription does not actually verify any identity, it remains unclear how the proposed algorithm and voting changes will tackle the bot swarm problem.
Musk did clarify that the service will continue to accept verified bot accounts that follow the platform’s terms of service and do not impersonate a human.
In light of these recent and upcoming changes, it remains to be seen if users will consider paying for a Twitter Blue subscription. For many, this might be the best time to consider a Twitter alternative. We’ll have to wait and watch.