Twitter Blue has sparked an increase of impersonation and misinformation; shortly after being released in early November, the Blue Subscription was suspended due to the abundance of impersonators. 

The intended purpose of verification is to show the viewers an account is not fake. For celebrities, brands and politicians the verification shows authenticity and credibility. 

According to The Washington Post, a fake account pretending to be pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly tweeted announcing insulin is now free. The tweet went viral and remained on the feed for two hours before being taken down, this caused Eli Lilly’s stock prices to drop significantly.

According to Insider, an account imitating American Girl Doll tweeted saying the colonial doll Felicity, owned slaves. A different account posed as Coca-Cola and tweeted the company will being adding cocain back into the drinks if the tweet was retweeted 1000 times. 

Musks Twitter Blue is causing chaos throughout the platform and people are finding it difficult to decipher what is real from fake. Sociology and contemporary world issues teacher Brian Glashagel pointed out, unmonitored social media allows for the spread of misinformation. 

“There are people that still believe the election was fraud,” Glashagel said. “There are more people believing that the earth is flat now than 300 years ago. It scares me how much people believe this stuff. There is no monitoring on social media sites like Twitter, Tiktok, Facebook and  people can openly spread false information, it’s dangerous.” 

According to The New York Times, Twitter is facing bankruptcy and Musk has laid off half the company’s employees. Musk hopes to improve Twitter by starting with the removal of nearly 3,500 staff members.  

With the cut back of staff, there are less employees filtering the tweets on the platform. When it comes to false information, economics teacher Alexander Mann states it is not Twitter’s responsibility to protect what people see and believe. 

“I don’t have to use Twitter to get New York Times News,” Mann said. “ I can go directly to the source and get their news and that is verified.”

The Twitter Blue subscription continues to affect the economy and social media. The controversy over what should or should not be censored through social media proceeds and the Twitter Blue is no longer a offered subscription.