Elon Musk said on Saturday that Twitter Blue, which allows users to pay for a subscription that gives them a verified blue check mark, will “probably” return next week after it was taken down amid chaos from accounts impersonating public figures.
Musk, who serves as CEO, said in a response to another user on Twitter that the service would return by the end of next week.
The subscription has been part of a slew of changes Musk is making to the social media platform after his purchase of the company went through last month. He soon after announced plans to charge users $7.99 per month for Twitter verification, but the paid check mark did not require users to verify their identities.
Accounts impersonating figures from LeBron James to former President George W. Bush quickly sprung up after the feature launched on Thursday. Twitter reportedly sent a note to its employees on Thursday night to announce that sign-ups would be temporarily paused to allow the company to address “impersonation issues.”
Musk said in a tweet on Thursday that parody accounts must include “parody” in their name and not just their bios.
“Basically, tricking people is not ok,” he said.
The feature was only launched on the Twitter iOS app before it was taken down.
Twitter launched additional gray “official” labels to distinguish accounts verified for public figures and companies from those for users who paid for it, but Musk pulled the labels. A Twitter employee said the gray labels would return.
Musk has been trying to reduce Twitter’s massive debt through lowering its expenses and increasing its revenue. He oversaw the laying off of about half of all Twitter employees last week.
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