A few days ago, new Twitter owner Elon Musk said the company will try a lot of stupid things the next few days. And that seems to be the company’s product strategy – even if it causes chaos everywhere.
It’s a tough time for anyone keeping an eye on changes on the social network because everything can change at any time without warning. Blinked a few times? Something has changed. Going to make coffee? Much has changed. Went sleeping? Welcome to a new world.
Earlier this week, Twitter launched its gray-colored official checkmark for well-known accounts such as businesses and politicians. This was intended as a second layer of identification after Musk stated that anyone who pays $8 a month will get the original blue check. But within hours of launch, he “killed it.”
On the other hand, the company’s product manager, Esther Crawford, clarified that the gray “official” labels are “still going out” as part of the new Twitter Blue product. As of this Friday morning, the official tick is back (a little) – but for a limited number of accounts. There is no clarity on how this will be rolled out. Defeat this plot, Christopher Nolan.
Then there’s the new $8 Twitter Blue subscription, which Musk believes is the savior of Twitter (and possibly humanity). It started rolling out for iOS users in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The only feature it currently has is the blue check mark, and yes, new users can’t sign up for it.
After this was rolled out, a number of accounts started trolling brands, athletes and officials, making it seem like they were tweeting from official accounts. Despite various bans and blocks, many accounts are still spreading misinformation. Many of these tweets get thousands of likes and retweets. So far we don’t know any serious consequences, but this can cause a lot of damage. Only if Twitter had strong leaders in security, legal, communications, and trust and safety teams.
Twitter has changed its policy on parody accounts by saying they must specify this in both their name and their bio to avoid imitation. Specifically, the language used in these policy changes is: coarse and vague.
At the time of writing, Twitter appears to have Twitter Blue Subscriptions Disabled over the world. As app researcher Jane Manchun Wong noted: the company will not let users subscribe to this new plan. This may be a result of a premature roll-out in countries like India, and it could also be another that “killed it.” Maybe by the time you read this it will be available again, who knows?
A lot is happening on Twitter at breakneck speed. New policy pages appear without corresponding functions being available in the app. The company is likely to implement changes in production straight from the development environment. timelines to be break. There are a lot bugs on the platform. spam has increased. Musk has stopped working remotely, saying: the company could go bankrupt. Large numbers of executives have left. But everything is fine, and Twitter is the most interesting place on earth.