Twitter will delay its new blue check subscription rollout until after Tuesday’s midterms amid concerns of election misinformation that would be caused by the new plan, the New York Times reported Sunday.
“We’ve made the decision to move the launch of this release to Nov. 9, after the election,”An internal Slack channel was used by a manager who was involved in the rollout. AccordingThe Times. According to the Times, the worker was responding Saturday to a staffer questioning why the social media platform was being used. “making such a risky change before elections, which has the potential of causing election interference.”
This is a backtrack on the $7.99 per-month subscription that Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner, had announced as having been launched. “half the ads,”Twitter Blue subscribers receive a bonus and additional features, such as the ability post longer videos. “priority ranking for quality content.”
The communications team for Twitter did not immediately respond to ’s request for comment.
NBC News’ Ben Collins Share concerns from former Twitter employees Friday about the misinformation that could spread on the app ahead of Tuesday’s election day.
“On Monday, anybody can maybe buy a verification badge,”He said this, referring back to the original intent of the “blue check,”This was done to verify that the user was who they claimed to be before they gave them the mark. “You could go and pose as anybody: an election official, a public figure, whatever, and they’ve cut the moderation staff so severely that there’s no way they’re gonna catch up in time for these lies.”
Despite varying reports of how many employees on the content moderation were impacted by the layoffs, Yoel Roth, Twitter’s Head of Safety & Integrity, only 15% of the Trust & Safety organization were laid off.
He also admittedThe company “restricted access”To content moderation software last week “security reasons”Added that the access will be restored in “coming days.”Roth also spoke “most of the 2,000+ content moderators working on front-line review were not impacted,” Bloomberg reportedLast week, only 15 employees had access the tools.
Musk made a number of major changes to social media platforms since taking over control of it just over a week earlier.
Despite laying off approximately 50% of the company Friday morning, Platformer’s Casey Newton reportedTwitter began asking employees who have been laid off to return to their posts on Saturday. Bloomberg ConfirmedThe company was also reaching out to, he said. “dozens of employees”Who lost their job.
