One of Musk’s first acts as Twitter CEO was to push the rollout of a feature within Twitter’s subscription service that would allow people to pay for blue check marks on their profile.
Blue check marks were previously given out only to verified accounts after Twitter had determined account-holder’s identities were real. But Musk’s new Twitter Blue service would allow anyone to pay $8 and receive the check.
The feature was paused a day after it launched after misinformation and account impersonations flooded the site. Accounts were created impersonating politicians including President Biden and celebrities, as well as brands announcing fake news.
After several more weeks of development, the company again launched the feature in December with some changes.
Cat Zakrzewski, Faiz Siddiqui, Jacob Bogage, Drew Harwell, Will Oremus, Taylor Lorenz, Naomi Nix and Jeremy Merrill contributed to this report.
