What Twitter will display and promote from April 15 only the tweets of users who pay a monthly subscription of $8, as Elon Musk announced a few hours ago.

What does it mean; The first thing anyone sees when they open the platform on mobile or desktop is the “For You” tab, which displays popular posts selected based on an algorithm.

Now this tab will display tweets only from those who have the famous “blue check mark”, that is, they are verified users who pay a monthly subscription set by the platform owner.

Starting April 15, only verified accounts will be eligible to receive For You recommendations.

This is the only real way to deal with swarms of advanced AI bots. Otherwise, it’s a hopelessly losing battle.

Voting in polls will require verification for the same reason.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2023

Of course, Musk was quick to point out that on the For You platform, tweets from accounts someone follows will also appear—as they do now—whether verified or not.

Another upcoming change is that once again, only those with Twitter Blue will be able to participate in the platform’s various surveys.

As Elon Musk said, these changes are happening because this is “the only real way to deal with advanced AI bots taking over” popular social networks.

As a reminder, from April 1st, users who previously received a free blue checkmark — usually accounts of government officials, famous stars, journalists, and others — will lose it unless they also pay for the $8 subscription.