Twitter is on the verge of a historic change. It's a huge risk that could alienate many of the accounts that create much of Twitter's content. It also

Twitter moves free users to the spam folder and makes a risky bet on its future

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2023-03-29 22:00:02

Twitter is on the verge of a historic change. It's a huge risk that could alienate many of the accounts that create much of Twitter's content. It also reveals how desperate Twitter is for new revenue streams as it fights to regain lost relevance and create a viable business model.

Elon Musk has revealed that the old blue checkmarks for notable Twitter accounts will start to disappear on April 1. Then, on April 15, only new Blue paid-for accounts' tweets will appear in Twitter users' For You feeds and be allowed to vote in polls, according to a tweet from Musk. Last fall, in a Twitter Spaces event, Musk said that Blue verified account tweets will appear higher in users' main feeds while tweets from unverified accounts would be relegated to the "probable spam folder."

Twitter's For You tab shows users tweets from people they don't follow but are recommended by Twitter's algorithm. Musk tweeted that restricting this tab to Twitter Blue user tweets "is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over."