Is Twitter’s time up?

What we are about to see is the dawning of a whole new Twitter. From now on, accounts have a blue tick because they are paying a monthly subscription, not because Twitter wants you to know that they are genuine.

There is of course a verification process involved in making that payment, but there are also already examples of fake accounts choosing to pay, in order to impersonate high-profile individuals and organisations.

Martin Lewis, a personal financial specialist, uncovered a subscribed account earlier this month that was advertising a cryptocurrency fraud to thousands of followers. It goes without saying that it wasn’t him.

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The company’s owner, Elon Musk, said he didn’t think it was only up to Twitter to decide who was important during the previous administration. He might actually be on to something there.