Twitter tick policy: Elon Musk announces further innovations

In addition, Twitter profiles of organizations and individuals are expected to receive ticks in different colors in the future, Musk announced in a tweet on Tuesday evening. He did not give further details.

Musk bought Twitter for about $44 billion at the end of October. The feature that was subsequently created on November 9 for buying ticks by subscription was quickly suspended again after the frequent appearance of fake accounts of celebrities and brands. Musk then said he would reintroduce them late last week, which didn’t happen. Then he said that the subscription should not be available again until November 29.

For years, check marks have been awarded to politicians and other celebrities, as well as companies and organizations after close scrutiny by Twitter. According to the new model, anyone who pays eight dollars a month should get the tick. There is no identity check. Since the check marks look exactly the same, it is only after clicking on the symbol that it is clear whether you are dealing with an actual verified account or a new, purchased check mark.

Some users created believable fake accounts with the ticks they bought – for example, for basketball star LeBron James, the games company Nintendo and ex-US president Donald Trump. The pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly had to apologize to Twitter users who led a fake account to believe that insulin would be distributed for free in the future. A supposedly verified fake account belonging to fruit trader Chiquita revealed that it had overthrown the Brazilian government. After a few days, Twitter finally disabled the feature again.

Since the takeover by Musk, Twitter has been struggling with the unwillingness of large advertising customers, among other things. Advertising revenue recently accounted for about 90 percent of company revenue. (con/sda/dpa)