Twitter owner Elon Musk on Tuesday announced that all verified accounts on the social network now stand ‘prioritised.’
“Verified accounts are now prioritized,” the billionaire said in a tweet, without giving further details.
According to one of the many replies to Musk’s post, ‘prioritising’ of verified handles means that the platform will give ‘special attention’ to those who got their profiles verified, or in other words, subscribed to Twitter Blue, the microblogging website’s $7.99 a month paid subscription service, which verifies profiles by granting blue ticks.
“…if your account is verified, people looking at Twitter are more likely to see your posts,” said user ‘Bob Is Here To Explain.’
Also, in a tweet on March 19, the world’s second-wealthiest person himself noted that Twitter will, in the coming weeks, prioritise replies from: (1.) People a user follows, (2.) Verified handles, and (3.) Unverified profiles.
Twitter takes away blue ticks…then reinstates
Tuesday’s announcement by Musk – the Tesla CEO purchased Twitter in October last year when he was still the richest person in the world – comes after the platform, on April 20, took away the verification badges (blue ticks) of several users, including celebrities, for not subscribing to Twitter Blue. This came after Musk, on April 11, announcedApril 20 as the date on which Twitter will remove blue ticks for those who do not subscribe to Twitter Blue.
Then, two days after the removal, ticks got reinstated for several accounts – without their knowledge and without them paying for it. Interestingly, these got restored only for handles (including those belonging to deceased persons) with at least 1 million followers.
There is no explanation yet from Musk – or Twitter – on how these got reverified, leading to speculations that the billionaire himself was behind the subscriptions.
