SAN FRANCISCO: Only verified Twitter accounts will be allowed to vote in elections beginning on April 15, according to Elon Musk, the CEO of the social media business, who feels this is the only "realistic" solution to the problem of sophisticated AI bots on the network.
"Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations. The 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", Musk tweeted.
Also, he stated that starting on April 15, only verified accounts would be permitted to appear in the "For You" recommendation.
The declaration follows Musk's statement from last week that all users with legacy authentication will lose their badges the next month. The only people who can keep their blue checks are those who sign up for Twitter Blue, which costs $8 per month.
"On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks. To keep your blue checkmark on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue and Organizations can sign up for Verified Organizations", Twitter had said in a tweet.
You will still be able to see tweets from the accounts you follow in the "Following" tab and tweets from accounts that are not part of Twitter Blue in other places, such as Explore Trends.
But it will reduce visibility, which might persuade more users to subscribe and increase Twitter's revenue from subscriptions. Users now have the option to view trending tweets from users they may not necessarily follow.
Twitter also features a "Following" page, where users can only view content from accounts they follow.
In order to prove that accounts belonging to celebrities, politicians, businesses, news organisations, and other accounts "of public importance" were legitimate and not impostor or parody accounts, Twitter initially introduced verified accounts in 2009. Formerly, the business didn't charge for verification.
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