Online service Twitter began rolling out its controversial new paid subscription on Saturday.
"Starting today, there are great new features on Twitter Blue," it said in an update that was initially only offered for iPhones.
According to the update, a monthly subscription to the paid service will now cost $7.99 (around eight euros) a month, up from $4.99 previously. The update was ordered by the new Twitter owner Elon Musk after his takeover.
The new subscription is to be a prerequisite for Twitter customers to verify their user accounts with the blue tick in future. In addition, Blue subscribers are to enjoy other advantages, such as significantly fewer advertisements.
Twitter's director of product development, Esther Crawford, explained that the new Blue version is not yet active, but that updates are already starting "because we are testing changes and triggering them in real time".
On Friday, multi-billionaire Musk had fired about half of his 7500 employees.
In an update for Apple iOS devices, Twitter says that users who sign up now "can get the blue checkmark next to their name, just like celebrities, businesses and politicians they already follow". So far, accounts that have already been verified do not seem to lose their blue ticks.
Fraudsters could use blue tick for themselves
The ability to get the blue tick could lead to confusion and disinformation ahead of the US midterm elections. Fraudsters could subscribe and take the names of politicians and election officials. Many fear that the social platform, which is used by government agencies, election boards, police departments and news outlets to inform people, could become unlawful if content moderation and vetting is removed. This is reported by the
Associated Press news agency.
Spiegel.de
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Swiss journalist Michaël Jarjour, was informed of his dismissal in the middle of the night.
Anyone who now clicks on the Swiss journalist's private profile receives the information: "Not a twit no more".
According to one of his tweets, the termination email surprised him in the night: "I woke up in the middle of the night, got up to get more water, looked at my phone and realised I was fired."
The media manager had been Senior Partner Manager at the platform for just about two years.
(Various reports on the net)
