Only verified Twitter accounts appear in For You Recs – Variety

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The changes on Elon Musk’s Twitter keep coming.

On Monday, Musk — who became CEO of the social media giant when he bought it in October — announced that starting in April, only verified accounts will appear in Twitter’s For You recommendations.

This follows Musk’s revelation last week that all users with “legacy” verification will lose their badges next month, meaning only those who sign up for Twitter Blue for $8 per month will get to keep their Blue checks.

“Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations,” Musk wrote on Twitter. “This is the only realistic way to deal with advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It’s a hopeless losing battle otherwise. Voting in polls will require verification for the same reason.”

The algorithmic For You timeline was rolled out back in January, giving users the ability to see popular tweets from users they don’t necessarily follow. Twitter also has a Followers tab, where users will only see content from accounts they follow.

Twitter first launched verified accounts in 2009 to identify that celebrities, politicians, companies and brands, news organizations and other accounts “of public interest” were genuine and not imposters or parodies. The company has not previously charged for confirmation.

Musk’s verification policy has raised concerns about misinformation on the site, as virtually anyone willing to pay the price can attempt to impersonate a public figure under the guise of verification. However, Twitter has taken steps to prevent this by reviewing Twitter Blue accounts before granting them verification.