One of Twitter’s top security chiefs resigned Thursday, as the platform is being revamped by its new owner, Elon Musk, It saw a rise in fake accounts, which led to a rare warning from US regulators.
“I made the difficult decision to leave Twitter,” the company’s security chief wrote on Twitter. Leah Kesner, who reportedly resigned along with other privacy or security executives.
Resignations happened one day After the chaotic launch of new features Musk introduced after his $44 billion purchase of the influential app.
The platform introduced the long-awaited subscription service Twitter Blue, Which allows users to pay $7.99 per month for a blue tick that the account has been verifiedplus a separate gray “official” badge for some notable accounts.
But the billionaire drew criticism when he scrapped the new gray flag almost immediately, overshadowing the launch of the payment service, which is currently only available on the iPhone mobile app and in the US.
The launch also brought a wave of fake accounts: some users took the opportunity to impersonate celebrities and politicians, Like NBA star LeBron James or former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The chaos sparked a rare warning from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US authority that oversees consumer safety. This has resulted in Twitter being placed under surveillance due to previous security and privacy breaches.
We are following recent events on Twitter with deep concern.An FTC spokesperson said in a statement.
“No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our approval decisions,” The spokesperson added, referring to Twitter’s previous commitments to comply with US privacy rules.
The boss of Tesla and SpaceX fired half of the California company’s 7,500 employees a week ago, ten days after they bought the platform and became its sole owner.
For the first time since the layoffs, Musk on Thursday addressed the rest of his employees and urged them to help the site reach 1 billion users, according to text messages from employees, according to the company. France Press agency.
He also announced that he was ending Twitter’s work-from-home policy, which was a widespread practice at the San Francisco-based company.. “If you don’t show up to the office, my resignation will be accepted,” he told the staff.
Countries where the new version of Twitter Blue will be active
Since the arrival of billionaire and businessman Elon Musk, there are many changes that will occur in the social network Twitter, especially in Twitter Blue, which adds a blue check mark, as well as a series of benefits, which will cost $ 8.
Also, the main idea of the new owner of the social network is to increase his earnings. However, this action and the implementation of a series of mass layoffs It prompted several users to criticize the situation to the point of abandoning the app.
Now, the company’s intention from the start has been that this new subscription will be available worldwide; However, the only countries that have access to it are the United States, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
Similarly, Twitter confirmed that they continue with the intention to expand the Blue service; However, the mentioned regions are the only ones that have access to not only the verification badge, but also for interactions with other users within the platform, as well as posting long videos and textsamong several others.
Finally, Twitter confirmed that they will add a gray verification badge and to see the difference between both types of accounts, the user must click on the badge and read the message that appears in a popup, which is as follows:
“This account has been verified for notoriety in government, news, entertainment, or any other specific category.”
*With information from Agence France-Presse
“Thinker. Professional twitter fanatic. Certified introvert. Troublemaker. Unapologetic zombie maven.”