Twitter relaunches Twitter Blue that will allow users to pay $8/month for a blue tick – but people wanting to use the feature on iPhones will have to splash out even MORE
- Twitter has officially re-launched the ‘Twitter Blue’ subscription service
- This allows subscribers to pay a monthly fee for a ‘Blue Tick’ verification mark
- iPhone users are now being charged $3 more each month for the same service
- This could be to offset the 30 per cent tax Apple places on in-app purchases
Twitter has relaunched ‘Twitter Blue’ – a subscription service that gives users a ‘Blue Tick’ of verification for a monthly fee.
The feature will cost $8 (£6.50) per month for those who purchase the service through the web or an Android device, but $11 (£9) per month through Apple iOS.
No explanation has been provided by the social network or its CEO, Elon Musk, as to why Apple users are being charged more than others.
However, tension was apparent between the two companies last month after Mr Musk claimed Apple ‘threatened to withhold Twitter’ from the App Store.
Twitter has relaunched ‘Twitter Blue’ – a subscription service that gives users a ‘Blue Tick’ of verification for a monthly fee
No explanation has been provided by the social network or its CEO, Elon Musk (pictured), as to why Apple users are being charged more than others for Twitter Blue
Twitter Blue a subscription service on the social networking site Twitter, that gives users a ‘Blue Tick’ of verification for a monthly fee.
It currently costs $8 (£6.50) per month for those who purchase the service through the web, but $11 (£9) per month through Apple iOS.
Subscribers are offered a range of features not available to regular account holders, including the ability to edit tweets after posting.
Each subscriber will also receive the Blue Tick by their account name after their account has been reviewed and connected to a verified phone number.
Verified business accounts will also be given a gold checkmark, and government accounts will be given a grey checkmark.
The billionaire also accused the tech giant of applying a ‘hidden 30% tax’ to in-app purchases within those hosted by Apple.
This would eat into his profit margins for Twitter Blue subscriptions bought through the iOS app, and could be an explanation for the price hike.
Subscribers are offered a range of features not available to regular account holders, including the ability to edit tweets after posting.
They will eventually also be able to upload higher quality videos, see fewer ads and access ‘reader mode’, which converts long threads of tweets into a more reader-friendly format.
All subscribers will be awarded with a coveted Blue Tick displayed on their profile.
Prior to Mr Musk’s takeover, checkmarks used to be given out by Twitter when the account had been confirmed as being run by the person or company it claimed to represent.
But when the tech mogul first launched Twitter Blue in early November, users were quick to take advantage of being able to simply buy one themselves.
Accounts impersonating famous people and corporations, including Mr Musk himself, flooded the platform, often posting potentially offensive and abusive content.
This forced the world’s richest man to halt the verification process, but not before advertisers pulled their contracts.
Twitter Blue was scheduled to be re-launched on November 29, but this was pushed back to today.
Likely in response to the bad actors that plagued the site after the first launch, Mr Musk has implemented a set of changes to the verification format.
Each subscriber will receive the Blue Tick by their account name after their account has been reviewed and connected to a verified phone number.
If they wish to change their account handle, display name or profile picture, they will lose their Blue Tick until Twitter has reviewed their account again.
Each subscriber will receive the Blue Tick by their account name after their account has been reviewed and connected to a verified phone number. If they wish to change their account handle, display name or profile picture, they will lose their Blue Tick until Twitter has reviewed their account again
Mr Musk has accused the tech giant of applying a ‘hidden 30% tax’ to in-app purchases within those hosted by Apple (stock image)
Later in the week, verified business accounts will also be given a gold checkmark, and government accounts will be given a grey checkmark, according to Twitter.
This replaces the current system of Twitter-verified accounts having a grey label underneath their name reading ‘Official’.
Musk has touted Twitter Blue as a way of bringing in revenue for the company he purchased for $44 billion in October.
He also claims it makes the verification process fairer, with the blue badges having previously been given to accounts Twitter deemed notable.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss dubbed this ‘lords and peasants’ system as ‘bulls**t’.
He has also argued that the system would help combat spam on the platform because verified accounts will have their replies to other posts promoted above other content.
He recently tweeted the company had ‘mostly stopped advertising’ on Twitter, meaning they could be joining the other at least 50 companies who have done so since he took over
Tension was apparent between Twitter and Apple last month after Mr Musk claimed Apple ‘threatened to withhold Twitter’ from the App Store
Last month, Mr Musk tweeted a host of grievances he had with Apple, including the 30 per cent fee it places on purchases made within apps hosted on its App Store.
He called out its CEO Tim Cook on November 28, after the company pulled its advertisements from Twitter.
‘Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter,’ Mr Musk wrote.
‘Do they hate free speech in America? What’s going on here @tim_cook?’
Responding to American commentator Liz Wheeler’s tweet that he should create his own smartphone ‘if Apple and Google boot him from their app stores,’ he replied that he would do that ‘if there is no other choice.’
However, after a subsequent meeting with Mr Cook, he tweeted that the misunderstanding about Twitter being removed from the App Store was resolved.
After a subsequent meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Mr Musk tweeted that the misunderstanding about Twitter being removed from the App Store was resolved
Even before Mr Musk took the helm, Twitter has been at odds with Apple about its content moderation, or lack thereof.
In an interview with the New York Times, the site’s former head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth said his team would often be contacted by reps with gripes over racial slurs and sexual content.
Apple has also suspended popular apps that do not abide by its store’s moderation rules in the past, like the ‘free speech’ Twitter alternative Parler.
It was removed in the wake of the US Capitol riots in January 2021, but was reinstated three months later after the app made its moderation policies more stringent.
Shortly after, Phil Schiller, an Apple Fellow responsible for leading the App Store, deleted his Twitter account after being active on the platform since 2008.
Even before Mr Musk took the helm, Twitter has been at odds with Apple about its content moderation, or lack thereof
However, Mr Musk said purchasing Twitter was his way ‘to help humanity’ by improving free speech and relaxing content.
‘Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,’ he said in April when the deal was announced.
He said he will grant a reprieve to accounts that have not ‘broken the law or engaged in egregious spam’.
According to Bloomberg, Mr Musk has fired many contractors who worked on policing the deluge of tweets including misinformation and hate speech under the site’s rules.
He has also restored a number of previously suspended accounts, including Donald Trump’s, but the former US president decided not to rejoin.
Platformer also reported that Twitter is in the process of reinstating around 62,000 banned accounts that each have more than 10,000 followers.
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TIMELINE OF ELON MUSK’S TWITTER TAKEOVER
April 2: Musk announces that he owns 9.2 percent of the company, making him its largest single shareholder.
April 14: Musk offers to take Twitter private at $54.20 a share, valuing the company at $44billion.
April 25: Twitter accepts Musk’s offer.
April 29: Musk sells $8bn in Tesla shares to finance deal.
May 13: Musk says Twitter deal is on hold pending a review of bot accounts.
May 26: Musk is sued by Twitter for stock manipulation during takeover.
July 8: Musk says he’s backing out of the deal. Twitter sues, trying to force him into seeing it through.
October 4: Musk proposes again to go ahead with the deal at the original price.
October 17: Proposed trial date in Delaware.
October 26: Musk visits Twitter HQ with a sink, updates his bio to ‘Chief Twit’ and sets his location to Twitter HQ.
October 27: Musk is officially made the new owner of Twitter, and tweets ‘the bird is freed’.
November 1: Musk confirms plans to change the system of ‘Blue Tick’ verification on Twitter, for a reduced subscription fee of $8 a month.
November 4: Musk lays off half of Twitter’s workforce as an alleged cost-cutting measure, claiming he had ‘no choice.’
November 9: Musk launches the ‘Twitter Blue’ subscription service which verifies accounts for a monthly fee.
November 11: The Twitter Blue service is paused due to accounts purchasing verification and using it to impersonate brands and public figures.
November 12: Musk fires 80 per cent of Twitter contractors without warning.
November 15: Musk fires employees that posted negatively about him on the business messaging app Slack. The lawsuit between Musk and Twitter is dismissed.
November 16: Twitter staff are told they need to sign a pledge to be able to stay on in their roles where they would be ‘working long hours at high intensity’ or receive three months of severance pay, resulting in a mass exodus.
November 18: A news-ticker was projected onto Twitter HQ in San Francisco dubbing Musk as a ‘space Karen’, ‘mediocre manchild’ and ‘bankruptcy baby’.
November 23: A Twitter user reported that 5.4 million phone numbers and email addresses leaked on the dark web, before his account was suspended.
November 26: Financial Times revealed that 50 of the platform’s top 100 advertisers have paused their ads.
November 29: Platformer reported that Twitter is in the process of reinstating around 62,000 banned accounts that each have more than 10,000 followers.
December 12: Twitter Blue is re-launched with new Blue Tick reviewing process.
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