Musk is now set to make non-paying accounts invisible on Twitter’s ‘For You’ stream
Twitter has undergone significant changes since it was taken over by Elon Musk, the microblogging site’s new CEO and the founder of SpaceX and Tesla.
Following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and obsession with removing bots from the bird app, several changes have been made in the name of making the application free of “fake news” and the business magnate’s “unpopular” decision of charging users for a blue verified check.
Musk’s latest move is to make non-paying accounts invisible in Twitter’s stream for recommended tweets — ‘For You’.
The business magnate announced the news on his Twitter account.
“Only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations beginning April 15th,” he wrote, adding that this is the “only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over.” Otherwise, it is a hopeless losing battle.”
Musk also stated in his tweet that voting in polls will require verification for the same reason.
That said, it’s ok to have verified bot accounts if they follow terms of service & don’t impersonate a human
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2023
“That said,” Musk added in an accompanying tweet, “it’s fine to have verified bot accounts as long as they follow the terms of service and don’t impersonate a human.”
Because of this new change to the app’s algorithm, only those with a “paid” blue check will have a chance to gain traction and appear in the ‘For You’ stream.
According to Musk, these changes will aid in combating the issues caused by advanced AI-run bots that have taken over the platform. According to Musk, this decision will tighten his grip on bot-run accounts as verified accounts.
Some Twitter users have criticized the CEO’s policy, claiming that it gives verified users too much power, which they can use to spread misinformation on the platform and harm society in the long run.
