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Twitter Blue signups disappear a day after fakes and mayhem

Twitter Blue signups disappear a day after fakes and mayhem

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The $7.99 subscription service only launched earlier this week but users are reporting that the option to sign up has disappeared from the iOS app. Perhaps Twitter Blue it.

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter users are reporting that the option to sign up for the company’s new $7.99 subscription service, Twitter Blue, has disappeared from the platform’s iOS app just days after the service launched. After we first published this story Friday morning, Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer reported that the company has suspended the launch of Twitter Blue.

You could previously subscribe to Twitter Blue from the sidebar in the iOS app, but users this morning reported that the option has disappeared. For those for whom the link is still available, trying to sign up only returns an error message. “Thank you for your interest!” it reads. “Twitter Blue will be available in your country in the future. Please check back later.” (Some Android users on the Twitter alpha and beta report seeing the option to subscribe.)

Trying to sign up for Twitter Blue in the UK this morning, Friday November 11th, only returned an error message.
Trying to sign up for Twitter Blue in the UK this morning, Friday November 11th, only returned an error message.
Image: Tom Warren / The Verge

Countless users have been buying verification in order to impersonate brands and celebrities, and according to Schiffer, Twitter shared an internal note saying that it’s actively working to stop users from subscribing “to help address impersonation issues.” However, the note says that people who were verified before the rollout of the new Blue can still upgrade, and those who are currently subscribed to Blue will keep their benefits, Schiffer reports.

Since Elon Musk’s mass-firing of Twitter’s work force earlier this week, many people — including current employees — have predicted that the service is in increasing danger of breakdown, as small errors pile-up un-addressed and the company’s remaining staff are pushed to their limit by stress, overwork, and a mandate to return to the office in person.

The launch itself of Twitter Blue has been incredibly chaotic, with Twitter trying to compensate for the confusing surge in fakes with the launch of another verification badge — a gray tick marking accounts as “official.” The company launched this feature, removed it, then launched it again, all in the space of a few days. In this context, the fact that Twitter Blue signups have disappeared from the company’s iOS app is merely par for the course — most things happening to Twitter right now are out of the blue.

Update November 11th, 10:59AM ET: Added that select Android users report seeing the option to subscribe to Twitter Blue.