The Twitter application is seen on a digital device, Monday, April 25, 2022, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
Elon Musk tweeted Tuesday that soon only blue check mark accounts will appear in the platform's recommendation or feed. Right now, an algorithm determines which tweets appear in the "For You" view, which features some posts from accounts you don't follow.
The change, set to begin April 15, would make it so only accounts that pay for the blue check mark designation make the cut.
"[This] is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over," Musk tweeted. "It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle."
In addition, only those users would be able to vote in polls.
The announcement is the latest attempt by Musk to overhaul the struggling social media platform since he purchased it last year. His last major change was launching a subscription service for $8 a month that allows users to essentially pay for verification. Legacy verified accounts now would be required to pay for the subscription as well to keep the check mark.
Previously, Twitter used verification as a way to make sure accounts are matched with the actual people they are presenting as on the platform. When the subscription service first launched, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly was hit with a stock selloff after a user with a blue check spoofed its official account and announced that insulin would now be free of charge.
Skift airline reporter Meghna Maharishi breaks down how the government shutdown is hitting air traffic control—and what it means for travelers and flight safety
Aya Kantorovich, Co-CEO of August Digital, breaks down Bitcoin’s surge, crypto ETFs, institutional investment trends, and the future of safer crypto access.
Most members of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting committee supported further reductions to its key interest rate this year, minutes from last month’s meeting showed.
Sinead O’Sullivan breaks down Taylor Swift’s genius marketing for The Life of a Showgirl, which just set the record for most albums sold in a single week.
Markets are emerging from a turbulent Q3. Horizon’s Mike Dickson shares insights on interest rates, small caps, and where investors should look in Q4 and beyond
Bambu Ventures's Kyle Pretsch dives into Lemonaid’s $10M buyout, down from 23andMe’s $400M price tag, and what’s next after Chrome Co.’s dramatic pivot.
Former Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers learned all about technology’s volatile highs and lows as a veteran of the internet’s early boom days during the late 1990s and the ensuing meltdown that followed the mania. And now he is seeing potential signs of the cycle repeating with another transformative technology in artificial intelligence. Chambers is trying take some of the lessons he learned while riding a wave that turned Cisco into the world's most valuable company in 2000 before a crash hammered its stock price and apply them as an investor in AI startups. He recently discussed AI's promise and perils during an interview with The Associated Press.
