Elon Musk says Twitter’s/X’s For You page will only recommend verified accounts
Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, tweeted on Monday night that users will require a “verified account” starting on April 15 in order to be suggested on the platform’s For You tab. It looks that if you want to appear in the feeds of people who don’t follow you, you’ll need to be a corporate, a government institution, or a Twitter Blue subscription because Twitter has pledged to begin eliminating the “old” verified system at the beginning of April.
That is “the only practical solution to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over,” according to Musk. According to Musk, only verified accounts will be able to vote in polls for the “same reason.”
Given that Musk’s tweets haven’t always resulted in features or policies that are implemented, it would be prudent to treat this news with extreme caution. The promise he made in February that the business would begin sharing ad revenue with Blue subscribers—a promise that is still unfulfilled nearly two months later—is possibly the best illustration. He also pledged to release the company’s algorithm as open source by March 5th, but that hasn’t happened yet. Now, he claims it will on March 31st, but he doesn’t mention the earlier missed date.
Similar assurances have already been made by Musk. Before abandoning the ruse of purportedly consulting the community before implementing significant service changes, he said that Twitter will only permit Blue Subscribers to participate in policy polls. But since he doesn’t really do those anymore, it’s kind of a moot point.