Elon Musk shares suggestions for Twitter Blue changes

Tesla CEO and new Twitter board member Elon Musk on Saturday tweeted some of his suggested modifications for the social media giant. 

Among his suggestions were changes to Twitter Blue, its subscription service launched last June.

“Everyone who signs up for Twitter Blue (ie pays $3/month) should get an authentication checkmark,” Musk tweeted, adding that the authentication for the paid service should be distinctive from the checkmarks used to verify public figures and official accounts. 

He said the checkmark for subscribers should be withheld for 60 days to prevent spam or scam accounts from accessing the service.

“And no ads,” Musk added as part of his weekend thread. “The power of corporations to dictate policy is greatly enhanced if Twitter depends on advertising money to survive.”

Musk on Saturday also questioned if Twitter was “dying,” citing a list of the top 10 most followed accounts on the site, some of which are rarely used. 

He specifically mentioned musicians Taylor Swift, who has not tweeted in three months, and Justin Bieber, who only tweeted once this year. Yet both performers remained among Twitter’s 10 most followed users.

The comments from Musk, who is now Twitter’s biggest shareholder, came after the company announced last week that it had begun testing a possible edit feature. 

“Without things like time limits, controls, and transparency about what has been edited, Edit could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation. Protecting the integrity of that public conversation is our top priority when we approach this work,” Jay Sullivan, Twitter’s vice president of consumer product, said in a tweet at the time of that announcement.

He added the company intended to “approach this feature with care and thoughtfulness and we will share updates as we go.”

Ahead of that announcement, Musk took to his personal Twitter to ask, “Do you want an edit button?”

In response to Musk’s poll, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal had said: “The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.”