The past week has seen Twitter announce – and quickly retract – new rules for authenticating user profiles, notably a controversial proposal to offer “blue check” verification to anyone willing to pay $8 a month. New owner Elon Musk, who on Tuesday set November 29 as the scheme’s relaunch date, has vowed that his proposed changes will democratise the policy on verified accounts and turn a profit, but the bumpy roll-out exposed a fault line at the heart of the social media platform.
Within days of Musk taking over Twitter in October, dramatic structural changes aiming to reduce company losses were under way, chief among them plans to change the site’s account verification process.
