Twitter Will Soon Restrict Polls and “For You” Recommendations to Paid Users

Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced yesterday that the platform was putting some basic features behind the Twitter Blue paywall. Starting on April 15, Twitter users who don’t subscribe to Twitter Blue won’t be able to vote in Twitter polls. Moreover, tweets from non-subscribers will also no longer appear in Twitter’s “For You” algorithmic feed.

According to Musk, this is “the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle,” the Twitter CEO said.

Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations.

The is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle.

Voting in polls will require verification for same reason.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2023

Twitter’s “For You” feed is the default timeline users see on the platform, and it mixes tweets from accounts and topics you follow as well as recommended tweets. Starting on April 15, though, this feed will no longer show tweets from Twitter users who don’t pay for Twitter Blue. This means that tweets from people you may care about may no longer appear there, and you may see tweets from verified people you don’t care about instead.

According to a report from Platformer, Twitter also has a secret list of roughly 35 celebrities including Musk himself, President Joe Biden, NBA star Lebron James, as well as several journalists and conservative commentators who are enjoying increased visibility on the platform. The days of Elon Musk advocating for open-sourcing Twitter’s algorithm to improve transparency now seem like a distant memory.

Even though Twitter users can switch to the non-algorithmic “Following” feed, the company is still trying hard to force Twitter power users to subscribe to Twitter Blue. At some point, Twitter plans to give Blue subscribers prioritized ranking in search and conversations, meaning that non-paid users may eventually see engagement on their tweets decrease.

Starting on April 1, Twitter will also start removing all legacy verified checkmarks on accounts that had them. To keep their checkmark, individuals and organizations will need to either pay for Twitter Blue ($8/month) or apply for Twitter’s Verified Organizations program, which costs $1,000/month cost in the US.