‘RISKY CHANGE’

Twitter Blue Changes Postponed Until After Election Day

Employees and users feared that pay-to-play policy changes to the company’s glorified checkmark status for verified accounts could bring chaos ahead of election day.

Twitter has paused the rollout of its highly controversial redesign for Twitter Blue until Nov. 9, after midterm elections, according to an internal review by The New York Times. The $7.99 pay-to-play function heralded by Twitter’s new leader, Elon Musk, was posited as a solution to the social media company’s revenue losses, but has since garnered widespread criticism by some users and employees who fear that the lost significance over verified accounts could cause confusion during the 2022 midterms. In a company Slack channel, one Twitter employee reportedly asked why the social media network was “making such a risky change before elections, which has the potential of causing election interference,” according to The Times. Twitter, which was purchased by Musk for $44 billion last month, faces radical changes as the billionaire attempts to make the historically unprofitable media giant turn a profit.