According to the New York Times, Twitter has delayed rolling out paid account verification until after the US midterm elections are over. The company reportedly made the decision Saturday after it briefly began rolling out its $8-per-month Twitter Blue service. In the hours after the company released an iOS app update that gave people a preview of its new verification system, both employees and users expressed concerns that paid badges could cause confusion ahead of a crucial election.
According to The Times, a Twitter employee, writing on an internal company Slack channel, asked management why the social network was “making such a risky change” with the “potential to cause election disruption.” A day later, a manager of the project said, “We made the decision to delay the launch of this version until November 9, after the election.”
Twitter did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. Most of the company’s PR team was laid off on Friday. Before Elon Musk announced Twitter’s revamped subscription service on Tuesday, the company had reserved blue badges for the accounts of notable politicians, celebrities, journalists and other prominent figures. While the system the company used to process verification requests was often messy, it was at least designed to limit identity theft. It’s unclear how the company plans to prevent such behavior in the future.
The November 9 release date will likely bring a sigh of relief to the engineers working on paid verification. Before Sunday, Elon Musk reportedly told staff they had until November 7 to ship the feature or they would be fired.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team independently from our parent company. Some of our stories contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may receive an affiliate commission. All prices are correct at time of publication.