Twitter | Twitter stopped selling the paid verification token after parody accounts took over the service

Social media platform Twitter has stopped selling the monthly paid verification token, or Twitter Blue.

The news agency reports on the matter, among others Bloomberg and editor-in-chief of the Platformer newsletter, which follows the IT industry Zoë Schiffer.

Both Schiffer and the source interviewed by Bloomberg say that the suspension of sales is due to accounts that appeared on Twitter with the launch of the service, which have appeared as companies and public figures, for example.

Twitter Blue has been the company’s new owner, a billionaire Elon Musk’sthe first major change to the operation of the platform.

In the past, blue verification marks have been used as a sign that the user of the account is really the person or organization that the account represents. Certification marks were typically received by, for example, companies, government agencies, public figures, journalists or persons in positions of trust, such as politicians.

Musk decided to change the verification token to a paid one. For eight dollars a month, anyone has recently been able to buy a certification mark similar to that of public figures, although only in certain countries, such as the United States.

Internet pranksters immediately took advantage of the opportunity, and parody accounts impersonating various official organizations or public figures began to flood Twitter.

In a couple of days, Twitter had seen, among other things, a Mario character showing a middle finger tweeted by an account representing the game company Nintendo, and the former president of the United States George W. Bush featuring an account that said it “longs to kill Iraqis.”

In the sports world, for example, a basketball star LeBron James the pretending account said they were asking for a player trade, and the account pretending to be a reporter for the sports media ESPN told about the non-existent firings of the head coach of a team operating in the American football league NFL.

There have also been plenty of pranks at the expense of Musk himself and his companies.

Musk tweeted on the night between Thursday and Friday, Finnish time, that the accounts making the parody should tell about it already in their name, not just in their profile.

Musk has also endorsed the idea that accounts featuring public figures are “free money” for Twitter. To impersonate a verified person or organization, trolls must pay an eight-dollar fee, which Twitter keeps even if it later suspends the account.

However, Twitter’s bigger problem is its advertisers, from whom the vast majority of the platform’s income has come in the past.

The mass flight of advertisers from Twitter was reported in the media shortly after Musk took over the company, even before the new Twitter Blue was announced. Musk himself has said that Twitter’s income has dropped significantly in a short time.

Official ones the crazy days of pranksters imitating accounts have brought more headaches to the companies. For example, the global pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly apologized on its official Twitter account for a misleading message sent from an account impersonating the company. Parodiatili’s tweet said that insulin will be free in the future.

Parody accounts as a result of the avalanche, Twitter seems to have returned an additional certificate to some official accounts, which says that the account is really authentic.

Twitter tried the gray additional verification token on a larger scale earlier in the week, but soon pulled it from the platform, apparently on Musk’s orders.

Read more: Twitter introduced a new, gray verification token, Elon Musk immediately stopped the project

Twitter’s official support account confirmed that the company added a gray verification mark to some accounts to combat accounts impersonating official accounts.

Situations within Twitter are currently changing rapidly. This is evidenced by, among other things, the fact that in the previous message of the official support account, less than a day earlier, it is stated that the company is not currently putting a gray additional certificate in connection with the accounts.