Twitter Blue 'probably' coming back end of next week, Musk says

The social media platform paused its new $8 blue check subscription due to a rising number of fake accounts

Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday that he plans to bring back Twitter Blue. Reuters

Twitter Blue will probably "come back end of next week", billionaire and owner Elon Musk said in a tweet on Saturday.

Twitter on Friday paused its recently announced $8 blue check subscription service on Friday, as fake accounts mushroomed.

The coveted blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures. But a subscription option, open to anyone prepared to pay, was rolled out earlier this week to help Twitter grow revenue as Musk fights to retain advertisers.

Several users reported on Friday that the new subscription option for the blue verification check mark had disappeared, while a source told Reuters the offering has been dropped.

"To combat impersonation, we've added an 'Official' label to some accounts," Twitter's support account — which has the "official" tag — tweeted on Friday.

The label was originally introduced on Wednesday, but was "killed" by Musk only hours later.

On Thursday, in his first companywide email, Musk warned that Twitter would not be able to "survive the upcoming economic downturn" if it failed to boost subscription revenue to offset falling advertising income, three people who saw the message told Reuters.

On Friday, Musk clarified the social media platform's stance on parody accounts on Twitter.

"Going forward, accounts engaged in parody must include 'parody' in their name, not just in bio," Musk wrote.

"To be more precise, accounts doing parody impersonations. Basically, tricking people is not ok ... We’re adding a 'Parody' subscript to clarify."

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Additional reporting by Reuters