Twitter Blue subscriber service to be relaunched from tomorrow

Elon Musk created a service offering blue checks to anyone willing to pay $8 per month after purchasing Twitter for $44 billion in October. But days after introduction, Twitter stopped the service due to an influx of fake accounts, including those mimicking Elon Musk’s companies Tesla and SpaceX.

On Monday, a month after a first attempt failed, the Twitter Blue tick premium service will once again launch.

The social media company announced on Saturday that starting on Monday, users would be able to purchase Twitter Blue memberships to access exclusive features and receive a blue checkmark.

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Prior until now, blue tick verification was given to well-known figures in a range of industries, including entertainment, politics, media, etc., to prevent impersonation.

However, Elon Musk started a service offering blue checks to anyone willing to pay $8 per month after he acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October. But soon after its launch, Twitter stopped the service due to an influx of phoney accounts, including some that claimed to be associated with Elon Musk’s companies Tesla and SpaceX. Early in November, Twitter Blue was initially introduced before being suspended because of the increasing number of fake accounts. Later, it was supposed to launch once more on November 29, but that date was postponed.

The company also disclosed on Saturday that Twitter Blue, a subscription service, will relaunch at a higher cost for Apple users. For $8 per month for web users and $11 per month for iPhone users, the relaunched service will be available.

In a series of tweets, the social media company wrote, “we’re relaunching Twitter Blue on Monday – subscribe on web for $8/month or on iOS for $11/month to get access to subscriber-only features, including the blue checkmark”

“When you subscribe you’ll get Edit Tweet, 1080p video uploads, reader mode, and a blue checkmark (after your account has been reviewed),” it added.

It further stated that starting this week, corporations will start using a gold checkmark, while governments and multilateral accounts will use a grey checkmark.

Subscribers can edit their handle, display name, or profile photo, but if they do, the blue checkmark will be temporarily lost until their account is approved again.

“thanks for your patience as we’ve worked to make Blue better – we’re excited and looking forward to sharing more with you soon!” it wrote.

According to a report from The Information, Twitter Inc. intended to lower the cost of its Twitter Blue subscription offering from $7.99 to $11 for users who pay through the website.

Lower price for the website is likely to encourage more customers to join up there rather than on their iPhones, according to the article, which suggested that the decision was likely a protest against the 30% cut that Apple Inc. gets from profits from apps on its operating system.

The social media giant was also planning to erase 1.5 billion inactive user accounts. Elon Musk announced in a tweet that “Twitter will start releasing the name space of 1.5 billion accounts soon.” He added, “These are blatant account removals with no tweets & no log in for years,” to another tweet.