Twitter will be implementing a major change in its recommendation system, Elon Musk has announced. Starting from April 15, only verified accounts will be eligible to appear in For You recommendations.
In a tweet, Musk said the change “is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. Otherwise it is a hopeless losing battle.”
Twitter is continuing to make changes to its policies following Musk’s $44 billion takeover last October.
The latest announcement follows last week’s removal of the status of some legacy accounts on the micro-blogging site. Twitter has also introduced paid subscription for blue ticks and other additional features, including an edit option for tweets.
Verified voting rights
Along with the “For You” page, the company is altering its policy on voting in polls.
“Voting in polls will require verification for same reason,” stated Musk.
The big boss previously said that paid verification significantly increases the cost of using bots and makes it easier to identify them.
“That said, it’s ok to have verified bot accounts if they follow the terms of service and don’t impersonate a human,” clarified Musk in the same thread.
However, the announcement has been questioned by some users.
“Is it OK for humans to impersonate bots?” asked Nick Percoco, Chief Security Officer at Kraken.
Recouping $42 billion?
A large number of Twitter users have criticized the change.
“Discouraging people from using your website by trying to shake them down for cash to use a site that’s been free its entire existence is definitely a smart strategy for recouping your $42 billion,” stated Zack Hunt.
Hunt said he realized “why some people think you’re a business genius.”
“For anyone who wants to stay on Twitter, this is a good time to make a list of your favorite users and use it as your primary feed now that For You will be all Twitter Blue junk! Otherwise you’ll never be shown tweets you actually want to see,” tweeted Ella Dawson.
In another response, Zerry Rig expressed uncertainty regarding the overlap between two groups of people: those willing to pay $8 to the richest man alive, and those who create interesting content.
“I’m not sure the venn diagram of people willing to pay 8 bucks to the richest man alive and the people who make interesting content overlap very much,” stated Rig.
Twitter user Rita Panahi criticized the platform’s recent bot-eliminating exercise, stating that she would have been more convinced if legacy verified accounts weren’t being compelled to pay.
It remains to be seen how Twitter’s new policy will work. Perhaps we’ll just have to wait until it goes live.
This article is originally from MetaNews.
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