Elon Musk posted a cryptic tweet today which could very well be a warning to the bots on Twitter. The tweet, without any text, had only two emojis - a grave and a robot - which could translate to 'RIP bots'. The tweet also had a 'soon' status update.
The billionaire, who set a price of $8 for a blue tick last week before suspending it yesterday, had earlier said that introducing a price was the only way to defeat trolls and bots on the platform and that Twitter could not entirely rely on advertisers to pay its bills.
🪦🤖
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 12, 2022
Mr Musk even posted a poll on Thursday asking users if they were seeing fewer of the scammers. The poll result, however, wasn't what he must have wanted to see as according to several users there was no improvement.
Twitter paused its $8 blue check subscription service on Friday as fake accounts mushroomed, and new owner Elon Musk brought back the "official" badge to some users of the social media platform.
The coveted blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures. But a subscription option, open to anyone prepared to pay, was rolled out earlier this week to help Twitter grow revenue as Musk fights to retain advertisers.
Fake accounts purporting to be big brands have popped up with the blue check since the new roll-out, including Mr Musk's Tesla and SpaceX, as well as Roblox, Nestle and Lockheed Martin.
"To combat impersonation, we've added an 'Official' label to some accounts," Twitter's support account - which has the "official" tag - tweeted on Friday.
Mr Musk had said Twitter users engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying it as a "parody" account would be permanently suspended without a warning. Several fake brand accounts, including those of Nintendo and BP, have been suspended.
With inputs from Reuters
