SECURITY

You Don’t Need to Buy Anything Just Because Twitter Wants You to Pay for TFA Texts

Elon Musk has done some weird things, but this is the weirdest so far

Screen shot by author of Twitter TFA settings

I certainly wouldn’t presume to know what’s happening inside Elon Musk’s head, but from the outside looking in, it looks like he’s either trying to kill Twitter or somehow turn it profitable.

Or he’s just bonkers.

Let’s go with the profit motive. What he first did there was to institute a charge for “Twitter Blue”. Currently ( late February 2023) the cost is $11 monthly or $114.99 yearly.

There are advantages to Twitter Blue. As of this writing, those advantages include 4,000 character Tweets, a 30 minute editing window, NFT profile pictures, a ranking boost, 1080p video uploads, and more features promised

In spite of all that swag, it appears that not a lot of people have bothered to take Twitter up on it and some number of those who did were up to no good.

A fake Will Ferrell account fooled the BBC because of Twitter Blue verification