Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk on Thursday tweeted that users’ follower count may start to drop because the microblogging site is purging “a lot” of spam/scam accounts.
This comes days after Musk said Twitter plans to relaunch its premium service that will offer different coloured check marks to accounts next week, in a fresh move to revamp the verification service after a previous attempt backfired.
It's the latest change to the social media platform that the billionaire Tesla CEO bought last month for $44 billion, Musk said he would grant “amnesty” for suspended accounts, which caused yet more uncertainty for users.
Twitter previously suspended the verification service, which under
Musk granted blue-check labels to anyone paying $8 a month. His initial plan was delayed amid concerns that users could create fake accounts, posing as political leaders, lawmakers, news outlets and organisations and purchase the verified badge, thereby adding to the spread of misinformation.
Originally, the blue check was given to government entities, corporations, celebrities and journalists verified by the platform to prevent impersonation.
Musk was expected to
launch the new verification service today with gold check for companies, grey check for the government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not). The billionaire has said all verified accounts would be manually authenticated before check activates.
Also, last week, the billionaire said he was granting "amnesty” for suspended accounts, which online safety experts predicted will spur a rise in harassment, hate speech and misinformation.
Musk’s announcement came after he asked in a poll posted to his timeline to vote on reinstatements for accounts that have not “broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.” The yes vote was 72 percent.
Separately, Musk also tweeted that the misunderstanding about
Twitter potentially being removed from Apple’s App Store was cleared following his conversation with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so," he said in a tweet.
This was after Musk tweeted that Apple had ‘threatened to withhold Twitter from its App store,’ to which Apple did not respond. But after visiting Apple Park in Cupertino, Elon Musk and Tim Cook seemed to have had a discussion over it.
Musk also alleged that Apple had “mostly" stopped advertising on Twitter and went after Tim Cook directly, tweeting, “What’s going on here @tim cook?"
