Since Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, things have gotten off to a rather tumultuous start. 
 
Like a bull in a china shop, he arrived and instantly asserted his authority, purging almost two-thirds of the workforce to take the headcount from 7,500 to 2,700 in just three weeks. 
 
He also relaunched Twitter Blue yesterday after a somewhat botched rollout last month. 
 
The famous blue tick indicating a verified account was traditionally reserved for notable figures and companies. However, subscribers only had to pay a monthly fee to suddenly gain this privilege. 
 
And guess what? It was marred by users who impersonated celebrities and brands to bombard feeds with some…not-so-kind tweets (to put it mildly). 
 
Shock horror! Didn’t see that coming, did you? 
 
So it was paused for a few weeks whilst they figured things out.

COMING SOON, COMING SOON, COMING SOON

Imagine releasing an incomplete product and expecting people to pay for it. That’s precisely what Twitter Blue is. Three of the four features promoted have a ‘COMING SOON’ tag attached to them. What that actually means is anyone’s guess. It could be days, weeks, or months before they’re implemented.

Furthermore, clearly irked by Apple taking a 30% cut from all App Store sales, Musk insisted on an £11 charge for new Twitter Blue subscriptions registered on the iOS app. That’s £3 more than the £8 it costs on the website.

At the moment, the only completed feature seems to be the tick. But at least Musk acknowledged, belatedly, that a tier system was necessary, with notable figures and companies now entitled to a gold tick.