Twitter's $8 Subscription Program Suspended
The paid subscription feature did not survive for even one week.
SAN FRANCISCO: The ambitious Twitter Blue feature failed to last even one week in the currently volatile market.
Billionaire Elon Musk wanted to make the microblogging site Twitter completely free of fake profiles and bogus accounts soon after he took over the brand. This was one of the main reasons that he cited for firing the top executives of the company when he took over. In his bid to further control the problem, an ambitious plan for paid membership called Twitter Blue was launched at the beginning of the week.
The plan allowed people to get Blue Tick on their profile without any verification if they subscribed to the same. While the 'official badge' was scrapped with the update. In addition to this, the owner had tweeted that parody accounts will have to mention it in their name itself.
But as soon as this paid feature was rolled out, a large number of profiles started impersonating popular people and brands on the microblogging site. Since these profiles had the traditional Blue Tick, general users became quite confused with the tweets and comments going out. Thus adding to the woes of the company already struggling to get back its trustworthiness.
According to reports, a fake profile of the popular Nintendo Corp was created with the ever-recognisable Super Mario showing the finger in its profile image. Another one posing as the Pharma Brand Eli Lily & Co. tweeted that it will provide essential drug insulin for free to the public, which forced the company to issue an apology. One more example cited an imposter of Tesla joking about the safety records of the car brand owned by the same person, Elon Musk
According to reports, existing subscribers will still have access to their accounts. It also mentioned that the Grey Badge has been reinstated to prominent businesses as well as popular people on Friday. Indian users had just started to receive the option for Twitter Blue when it was taken down. One can keep in mind that the charges for the service in India were kept at Rs 719, which is higher than the $8 quoted by the company.
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