On March 27th, 2023, Elon Musk announced that as of April 15th, only tweets from paying, Twitter Blue verified accounts will be recommended in the main tab of the app, ‘For You’. Additionally, voting in Twitter polls will also become an exclusive option for Twitter Blue subscribers. Twitter is also removing ‘legacy’ blue checkmarks, and the only blue ticks will be from paying users. Twitter Blue, which was made available worldwide the previous week, currently has around 450k subscribers, equating to 0.18% of Twitter’s total user base. The move is aimed at driving more adoption of Twitter Blue, which could help combat bots and spam on the app. However, there is a risk that For You will become a very one-sided discussion aligned with Musk’s political and ideological stances, which may turn off many users. The change may also make many people less likely to tweet and switch to the ‘For You’ tab, reducing discovery and thus usage.
