X platform users can now allow only paid accounts to reply to their posts
Users of the X platform, which was called Twitter before the rebranding, were able to block replies to their posts from free accounts, reports The Verge.
The changes came about 11 months after Elon Musk’s company introduced paid verification with the relaunch of Twitter Blue. During the rebranding, the service was renamed XBlue.
Paid verification has made a lot of noise. In the spring, Twitter removed the outdated checkboxes, but later restored them for top accounts – even if they didn’t pay for it. This summer, X allowed paid users to hide verification checkboxes.
The current change means that users who do not pay for verification may have a harder time refuting disinformation on the platform. The volume of it is very high – the EU has recently even warned Elon Musk after X turned out to be a leader in disinformation.
There is an opinion that the changes on the platform are, on the contrary, positive. Restrictions on replies from unverified accounts are supposed to reduce harassment or trolling. However, this argument can hardly be considered convincing given the existence of bots with verification checkboxes.