SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Twitter on Saturday launched a $7.99-a-month subscription service that includes a blue check now given only to verified accounts as new owner Elon Musk overhauls the platform’s verification system ahead of the midterms US elections.
In an update for Apple iOS devices, Twitter said users who “sign up now” can get the blue check next to their names “just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow.”  So far, verified accounts don’t seem to be losing their checks.
Whoever can get the blue check could lead to confusion and a rise in misinformation ahead of Tuesday’s election if fraudsters decide to pay for the subscription and co-opt the names of politicians and election officials.  Along with the widespread layoffs that began Friday, many fear that the social platform used by civil services, election boards, police departments and news outlets to keep people reliably informed could become illegal if surveillance and content verification removed.
The change represents the end of Twitter’s current verification system, which was launched in 2009 to prevent impersonation of high-profile accounts such as celebrities and politicians.  Before the overhaul, Twitter had about 423,000 verified accounts, many of which were journalists from around the world who were verified by the company regardless of how many followers they had.
Experts have raised serious concerns about the rollback of the platform’s verification system that, while not perfect, helped Twitter’s 238 million daily users determine whether the accounts they received information from were authentic.  Current verified accounts include celebrities, athletes, influencers, and other high-profile public figures, along with government agencies and politicians around the world, journalists and news agencies, activists, and businesses and brands.
The update Twitter made to the iOS version of its app doesn’t mention verification as part of the new blue check system.
Musk, who earlier said he wants to “verify all people” on Twitter, argued that public figures would be identified in ways other than a blue check.  Currently, for example, government officials are identified in text with names that indicate they are posting from an official government account.
President Joe Biden’s ↕POTUS account, for example, says in gray letters that it belongs to a “United States government official.”
The change comes a day after Twitter began laying off workers to cut costs and as more companies halt advertising on the platform as a wary corporate world waits to see how it will fare under its new owner.
About half of the company’s 7,500-strong workforce has been laid off, Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of security and integrity, said on Twitter.
He said the company’s frontline content coordination staff was the group least affected by the job cuts and that “election integrity efforts — including harmful disinformation that can suppress voting and combating information operations that supported by the state – remain a top priority’.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on Saturday took responsibility for the widespread job losses.  He had two runs as CEO of Twitter, with the most recent spanning from 2015 to 2021.
“I’m responsible for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the size of the company too fast,” he tweeted.  “I apologize for that.”
Musk tweeted late Friday that he had no choice but to cut jobs “when the company is losing over $4 million a day.”  He did not elaborate on the daily losses on Twitter and said the employees who lost their jobs were offered three months’ severance pay.
Meanwhile, Twitter has already seen a “massive drop in revenue” due to pressure from activist groups on advertisers to leave the platform, Musk tweeted on Friday.  This hits Twitter hard because of its heavy reliance so far on advertising to make money.  In the first six months of this year, nearly $92 out of every $100 in revenue came from advertising.
United Airlines on Saturday became the latest major brand to stop advertising on Twitter, confirming the move but declining to discuss the reasons for it or what it would need to see to continue advertising on the platform.
It became part of a growing list of major companies to stop advertising on Twitter, including General Motors, REI, General Mills and Audi.
Musk tried to reassure advertisers last week, saying Twitter would not become a “free-for-all” because of its commitment to free speech.
However, concerns remain about whether a lighter touch on content moderation on Twitter will result in users sending more offensive tweets.  This could damage companies’ brands if their ads appear alongside them.
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AP Business writer Stan Choe contributed from New York.