Elon Musk says verified Twitter accounts are now ‘prioritised’

“Verified accounts are now prioritized,” Musk said in a tweet.

The Twitter boss had earlier announced that users who had not subscribed to Twitter Blue would lose their legacy blue verification marks.

Musk has introduced several changes on the microblogging platform since buying it last year in a $44-billion deal.

Last week, the verification badges started disappearing from many verified accounts.

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Several noted personalities on the platform, including Rahul Gandhi, Shah Rukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, lost their blue ticks on Thursday.

A U-turn in two days

Just two days later, the blue tick was restored on the profiles of those with at least one million followers.

In a bizarre turn of events, the blue tick was also visible on profiles of dead personalities, including late actors Sushant Singh Rajput and Irrfan Khan.

Musk has been pushing users to subscribe to Twitter blue, in an effort to increase revenue for the social media platform.

Last month, he said Twitter would prioritise replies from accounts users follow and from verified accounts.

“Verified accounts are 1000X harder to game by bot & troll armies. There is great wisdom to the old saying: ‘You get what you pay for’,” he said.

More features coming

Besides the blue tick mark, Twitter Blue allows users to edit tweets within 30 minutes of posting them. The microblogging platform is reportedly rolling out additional features for Blue subscribers, including showing half as many ads in their timeline compared to non-paid users, and also giving the paid subscribers a visibility boost in searches.

The service is available for the web, iOS and Android devices. In India, the monthly subscription fee for iOS and Android users is Rs 900, while it is Rs 650 per month for the web version.

Musk had earlier said that beginning April 15, only verified accounts would be eligible to receive For You recommendations.

Recently, Twitter had announced that it will stop supporting SMS-based two-factor authentication for users who had not subscribed to Twitter Blue.