Anyone being able to get the blue check could lead to confusion and the rise of disinformation ahead of Tuesday\u2019s elections, but Musk tweeted Saturday in response to a question about the risk of impostors impersonating verified profiles \u2014 such as politicians and election officials \u2014 that \u201cTwitter will suspend the account attempting impersonation and keep the money!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if scammers want to do this a million times, that\u2019s just a whole bunch of free money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But many fear widespread layoffs that began Friday could gut the guardrails of content moderation and verification on the social platform that public agencies, election boards, police departments and news outlets use to keep people reliably informed.<\/p>\n

The change will end Twitter\u2019s current verification system, which was launched in 2009 to prevent impersonations of high-profile accounts such as celebrities and politicians. Twitter now has about 423,000 verified accounts, many of them rank-and-file journalists from around the globe that the company verified regardless of how many followers they had.<\/p>\n

Experts have raised grave concerns about upending the platform\u2019s verification system that, while not perfect, has helped Twitter\u2019s 238 million daily users determine whether accounts they get information from are authentic. Current verified accounts include celebrities, athletes and influencers, along with government agencies and politicians worldwide, journalists and news outlets, activists, businesses and brands, and Musk himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows the blue check has value, and he\u2019s trying to exploit it quickly,\u201d said Jennifer Grygiel, an associate professor of communications at Syracuse University and an expert on social media. \u201cHe needs to earn the trust of the people before he can sell them anything. Why would you buy a car from a salesman that you know has essentially proved to be chaotic?\u201d<\/p>\n

The update Twitter made to the iOS version of its app does not mention verification as part of the new blue check system. So far, the update is not available on Android devices.<\/p>\n

Musk, who had earlier said that he wants to \u201cverify all humans\u201d on Twitter, has floated that public figures would be identified in ways other than the blue check. Currently, for instance, government officials are identified with text under names stating that they are posting from an official government account.<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden\u2019s @POTUS account, for example, says in gray letters it belongs to a \u201cUnited States government official.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement comes a day after Twitter began laying off workers to cut costs and as more companies are pausing advertising on the platform as a cautious corporate world waits to see how it will operate under its new owner.<\/p>\n

About half of the company\u2019s staff of 7,500 was let go, tweeted Yoel Roth, Twitter\u2019s head of safety and integrity.<\/p>\n

He said the company\u2019s front-line content moderation staff was the group the least affected by the job cuts and that \u201cefforts on election integrity \u2014 including harmful misinformation that can suppress the vote and combatting state-backed information operations \u2014 remain a top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n