Twitter Blue will probably “come back end of next week”, billionaire owner Elon Musk said in a tweet on Saturday. The microblogging service on Friday paused its recently announced $8 (roughly Rs. 650) blue check subscription service on Friday as fake accounts mushroomed. The coveted blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures. But a subscription option, open to anyone prepared to pay, was rolled out earlier this week to help Twitter grow revenue as Musk fights to retain advertisers

Several users reported on Friday that the new subscription option for the blue verification check mark had disappeared, while a source told Reuters the offering has been dropped.

“To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts,” Twitter’s support account – which has the “official” tag – tweeted on Friday.

The label was originally introduced on Wednesday – but “killed” by Musk just hours later.

On Thursday, in his first companywide email, Musk warned that Twitter would not be able to “survive the upcoming economic downturn” if it failed to boost subscription revenue to offset falling advertising income, three people who saw the message told Reuters.

Last week, Yoel Roth, who has overseen Twitter’s response to combat hate speech, misinformation and spam on the service, resigned. In his Twitter profile on Thursday, Roth described himself as “Former Head of Trust & Safety” at the company.

Musk had said Twitter users engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying it as a “parody” account will be permanently suspended without a warning. Several fake brand accounts, including those of Nintendo and BP, have been suspended. 

Many companies, including General Motors and United Airlines, have paused or pulled back from advertising on the platform after Musk took over. In response, the billionaire said on Wednesday he aimed to turn Twitter into a force for truth and stop fake accounts.

© Thomson Reuters 2022