Twitter CEO Elon Musk has announced that the company will soon only display tweets from verified accounts in its For You recommendations. According to Musk, the change is necessary to combat the threat of AI bots on the platform. “The only realistic way to fight back against advanced AI bot swarms confusing people en masse is by making bots pay for verified Twitter accounts, as they have nominal value,” he explained. Polls will also require verification for the same reason, he added.
This came right after Twitter Blue’s global roll-out. The For You feed, which shows tweets based on previous likes and network activity, was introduced in January as an alternative to the Following tab, even though the Following tab was kept for now. However, the feature has not been universally popular, with some users concerned that the change will result in more promotional tweets being displayed.
Starting on April 15th, only tweets from verified accounts, including those of paid subscribers to Twitter’s Blue service, will be displayed in the For You feed. Musk clarified that AI bots can still be verified as long as they do not impersonate a human.
In addition to this change, Twitter is also set to remove legacy checkmarks on April 1st, stripping public personalities, companies, and government and non-government organizations of their verified status unless they pay $1,000 for it. The move has been criticized by some as a further step towards a paid-only model for the social media site.
