LONDON: Twitter will revise its user verification process, Elon Musk said in a tweet on Sunday, just days after he took over one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.
“Whole verification process is being revamped right now,” Musk said in his tweet without giving more details.
Twitter is considering charging for the coveted blue check mark verifying the identity of its account holder, technology newsletter Platformer reported on Sunday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Users would have to subscribe to Twitter Blue at $4.99 a month or lose their “verified” badges if the project moves forward, according to the report.
The CEO of Tesla Inc. has not made a final decision and the project could still be scrapped but according to Platformer it is likely that verification will become a part of Twitter Blue.
Separately, The Verge reported on Sunday that Twitter will increase the subscription price for Twitter Blue, which also verifies users, from $4.99 a month to $19.99 a month, citing internal correspondence seen by them.
Twitter Blue was launched in June last year as the platform’s first subscription service, which offers “exclusive access to premium features” on a monthly subscription basis including an option to edit tweets.
The feature to edit tweets was also made available earlier this month after Musk launched a Twitter poll in April asking his millions of followers whether they wanted an edit button. Over 70 percent had said yes.
Musk has also requested that logged out users visiting Twitter’s site be redirected to Explore page which shows trending tweets, according to a separate Verge report on Sunday citing employees who were familiar with the matter.
Elon Musk says Twitter will revise how it verifies users
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Elon Musk says Twitter will revise how it verifies users
- Executives reported to "strongly considered" increasing Blue Twitter subscription cost to $19.99 a month
EU warns Meta it must open up WhatsApp to rival AI chatbots
- The EU executive on Monday told Meta to give rival chatbots access to WhatsApp after an antitrust probe found the US giant to be in breach of the bloc’s competition rules
BRUSSELS: The EU executive on Monday told Meta to give rival chatbots access to WhatsApp after an antitrust probe found the US giant to be in breach of the bloc’s competition rules.
The European Commission said a change in Meta’s terms had “effectively” barred third-party artificial intelligence assistants from connecting to customers via the messaging platform since January.
Competition chief Teresa Ribera said the EU was “considering quickly imposing interim measures on Meta, to preserve access for competitors to WhatsApp while the investigation is ongoing, and avoid Meta’s new policy irreparably harming competition in Europe.”
The EU executive, which is in charge of competition policy, sent Meta a warning known as a “statement of objections,” a formal step in antitrust probes.
Meta now has a chance to reply and defend itself. Monday’s step does not prejudge the outcome of the probe, the commission said.
The tech giant rejected the commission’s preliminary findings.
“The facts are that there is no reason for the EU to intervene,” a Meta spokesperson said.
“There are many AI options and people can use them from app stores, operating systems, devices, websites, and industry partnerships. The commission’s logic incorrectly assumes the WhatsApp Business API is a key distribution channel for these chatbots,” the spokesperson said.
Opened in December, the EU probe marks the latest attempt by the 27-nation bloc to rein in Big Tech, many of whom are based in the United States, in the face of strong pushback by the government of US President Donald Trump.
- Meta in the firing line -
The investigation covers the European Economic Area (EEA), made up of the bloc’s 27 states, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway — with the exception of Italy, which opened a separate investigation into Meta in July.
The commission said that Meta is “likely to be dominant” in the EEA for consumer messaging apps, notably through WhatsApp, and accused Meta of “abusing this dominant position by refusing access” to competitors.
“We cannot allow dominant tech companies to illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage,” Ribera said in a statement.
There is no legal deadline for concluding an antitrust probe.
Meta is already under investigation under different laws in the European Union.
EU regulators are also investigating its platforms Facebook and Instagram over fears they are not doing enough to tackle the risk of social media addiction for children.
The company also appealed a 200-million-euro fine imposed last year by the commission under the online competition law, the Digital Markets Act.
That case focused on its policy asking users to choose between an ad-free subscription and a free, ad-supported service, and Brussels and Meta remain in discussions over finding an alternative that would address the EU’s concerns.
