Two days. That’s how long Twitter’s $8 per month paid subscription for account verification lasted. The problems started as soon as the new option was implemented. In the end, Elon Musk decided to do away the new option all together.
The news was delivered by Zoë Schiffer, editor-in-chief of Platformer. She obtained access to an internal memo that Twitter sent to its workers informing them of the temporary suspension of Twitter Blue:
NEW: Twitter has suspended the launch of Twitter Blue and is actively trying to stop people from subscribing "to help address impersonation issues," per an internal note. 1/
- Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) November 11, 2022
Eli Lilly and Company, one of the most affected companies
The decision comes after the large increase of fake accounts on the well-known social network and forced the new CEO of Twitter to suspend the option of having a verified account for $7.99 per month. This was set in motion after detecting that Eli Lilly and Company had been affected. In their case, a fake account impersonated the well-known pharmaceutical company and posted a tweet claiming that insulin was free from that day on:
The tweet caused the company to lose millions of dollars. According to Marketwatch, the company's shares closed at $352.30 on Friday, down $17.50 from the high it had reached on Tuesday, November 9 when it was at $369.80 per share. It is also the lowest price of its shares in the last 52 weeks. All of this prompted Eli Lilly and Company to post a tweet explaining what had happened:
We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account. Our official Twitter account is @LillyPad.
- Eli Lilly and Company (@LillyPad) November 10, 2022
This incident prompted Elon Musk to speak out again on his Twitter profile. The temporary suspension of Twitter Blue caused a new rule to be implemented on Twitter: every fake account has to have the word "parody" in its username and not just in its biography, which was already required before. With this, Musk hopes to tackle the impersonation problem and reinstate Twitter Blue in the near future.
Going forward, accounts engaged in parody must include "parody" in their name, not just in bio
- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2022
