By Leah Montebello
Twitter confirmed that it would be delaying the rollout of its paid-for verification until after the US midterm elections, temporarily abating fears about fake account misinformation campaigns.
As the new social media chief, Elon Musk has laid out plans to allow users to purchase blue-tick verification for their profiles – a privilege that is usually reserved for influential individuals.
The main concern was that bad actors could use this new function to pose as public figures and spread fake news during the midterms, which are key scene-setting for the 2024 presidential campaign.
“The planned changes to Twitter Blue to make verification more widely available raise the stakes for this kind of impersonation,” said Twitter’s head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth.
He said that the new feature would now launch after the midterm election day, which started today.
The eccentric billionaire has already thrown his support behind the Republicans in the vote, which Hargreaves Lansdown’s senior markets analyst Susannah Streeter said chucks out any hope for political impartiality for the firm.
Streeter warned that strong political stances from Twitter’s CEO could push even the most loyal users away.
However, it appears that Twitter are singing a different tune.
According to an email seen by the Financial Times from the social media firm to some of its advertisers, the company said it had seen “accelerating” user growth since the Tesla founder completed his $44bn takeover on 27 October.
It explained monetisable active daily users for advertisers had hit “all-time highs”, climbing from 15 to 20 per cent. The email said that the US market was growing at an even faster rate.
Big name brands like Audi, General Motors and Cheerios’ owner General Mills have all pulled their ads from the social media site, with a general concern being what the future of content moderation could look like under the steer of Musk.
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