Elon Musk Says Only Verified Twitter Accounts Will Appear in For You Timeline Starting in April

Ellise Shafer
·2 min read
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UPDATED: The changes at Elon Musk’s Twitter just keep coming.

On Monday, Musk — who became the CEO of the social media giant when he purchased it in October — announced that starting in April, only verified accounts will show up in Twitter’s For You recommendations.

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This follows Twitter’s revelation last week that all users with “legacy” verification will lose their badges next month, meaning only those who register for Twitter Blue for $8 per month will get to retain their blue checks.

“Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations,” Musk wrote on Twitter. “This is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle. Voting in polls will require verification for same reason.”

On Tuesday, Musk added in a tweet, “Forgot to mention that accounts you follow directly will also be in For You, since you have explicitly asked for them.”

The algorithmic For You timeline was rolled out in January, giving users the option to view popular tweets from users they don’t necessarily follow. Twitter also has a Following tab, where users will only see content from accounts they follow.

Twitter first launched verified accounts in 2009 to identify that celebrities, politicians, companies and brands, news organizations and other accounts “of public interest” were genuine and not impostor or parody accounts. The company didn’t previously charge for verification.

Musk’s verification policy has raised concerns about misinformation on the site, as virtually anyone willing to pay the price could attempt to impersonate a public figure under the guise of verification. However, Twitter has taken steps to prevent this by reviewing Twitter Blue accounts before granting them verification.

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