Elon Musk presses the pause button on the $8 blue tick on Twitter

Elon Musk has temporarily suspended the plan to charge $8 for a blue tick on Twitter that he launched earlier this week after people started impersonating significant brands and celebs.

Twitter has allegedly hit a pause button on the $8 subscription fee for the blue tick on the platform that was announced just a week ago by its new CEO Elon Musk, says a report by The Washington Post,

This development comes after the number of fake accounts of verified brands and celebrities started popping up. The platform had initially rolled out the program on November 09, where they provided the users who paid the $8 subscription with a verified Blue Tick. Previously, the blue token was only given to government entities, corporations, celebrities, and journalists verified by the platform, ensuring impersonation prevention.

As soon as Twitter rolled out the subscription format on the blue ticks, users from around the globe started using the tool to create fake accounts. Fake accounts of President Biden, other celebs, and even Elon Musk himself started showing up. Eli Lilly and Company, an American pharma company’s fake account with a blue tick Tweeted out claiming ‘Insulin is free now.’ This infamous tweet quickly gained eyeballs and as a result the company lost $15 billion in market capitalization. 

Also Read: Navigating through the chaos at Elon Musk’s Twitter, experts suggest way forward

In addition to scrapping their initial plans, Musk also Tweeted out saying that accounts engaged to parody will have to include the word ‘parody’ in their name and not just their bios. 

Going forward, accounts engaged in parody must include “parody” in their name, not just in bio

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2022

“To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts,” Twitter Support tweeted on Friday.

This change comes just weeks after Elon Musk took over the app. The number of changes Musk has made to the guidelines of the platform have been received in a negative light from the audience across the world.