Twitter CEO Elon Musk has announced a restructuring of the social media platform’s paid Twitter Blue feature.
Starting April 15, only verified subscribers will be able to recommend posts to other users and participate in polls.
As per policy, posts from non-paying accounts will not be included in the Recommended Tweets For You stream.
Last week, the firm said it would remove the verified status of some “legacy” accounts that predated Mr Musk’s purchase of the firm.
Users currently pay $7 (£5.70) per month for Blue Tick verification, which also gives access to additional features.
Mr Musk said the changes are “the only realistic way to approach the takeover of advanced AI bot swarms. Otherwise it is a hopeless losing battle.”
“Voting in polls requires verification for the same reason,” he added.
In a previous postMr Musk said that paid verification significantly increases the cost of using bots and makes them easier to identify.
However, the move drew criticism from some social media users.
A former member of Twitter’s verification team, who asked not to be identified, told the BBC: “Our number one goal for my team was to protect users from harm in the real world, and to me that screams completely the opposite.”
“Verified users will use their power and presence on the platform to affect everything from misinformation to actual harm to users around the world. It’s a silent threat that nobody sees,” they added.
When Elon Musk took over Twitter, he was full of lofty ambitions to bring “free speech” back.
He wanted the platform to be “maximum trust” and said it was “not a way to make money”.
But Twitter politics now feels very different from those ideals.
Realizing that growing ad revenue was difficult, Musk turned to a subscription-based model.
The sale originally consisted of giving users a “blue tick” confirmation when they paid a monthly fee.
But paying users didn’t flock. Faced with declining ad revenue and a stuttering subscription model, Musk has chosen the nuclear option.
There are two algorithms on Twitter – the “For You” stream of recommended tweets and the stream of tweets from people you follow.
Elon Musk’s new policy will now essentially bar non-paying users from participating in any of these streams.
This means that unverified Twitter users are far less likely to like or retweet their tweets.
Combined with Elon Musk’s cessation of misinformation checks, this could be an extremely dangerous moment for Twitter.
I’ve spoken to former employees who think this might be manna from heaven for trolls and people spreading misinformation.
It also raises an existential question for Twitter. It should be a fairly meritocratic place – with tweets rising for the quality of their content.
It’s been a big part of Twitter’s success. But now that seems to have been swept away.
Twitter Blue got off to a chaotic first start in November, when people started impersonating big brands and celebrities and paying for the blue tick to make them look authentic. Many pretended to be Mr Musk himself.
This forced Twitter to pause the feature after less than a week before restarting it the following month.
Twitter Blue has since been used by controversial groups, including Taliban officials and their prominent supporters in Afghanistan.
Verified users have boosted their tweets through other accounts. Subscribers have access to additional features, including an edit button, among other things.
Previously, the blue tick was used to indicate that high profile accounts were authentic. It was issued by Twitter with no subscription fee – but only the company itself decided who got one.
Last week, Twitter said it would also begin phasing out its “Legacy Verified program” and removing some “Legacy Verified ticks” starting April 1st.
The company added that users would have to pay to “keep their blue tick on Twitter.”
Bots on social media platforms can interfere with their ability to drive ad revenue or paid subscriptions.
Mr Musk has often raised concerns about how many fake or spam accounts there are on Twitter. At one point, he scrapped his $44 billion plan to buy the social media platform when he questioned the number of bots the company’s former management team had disclosed.
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