AOC says Elon Musk's changes to Twitter's blue check feature are 'ripe for targeted harassment'

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned Elon Musk's changes to Twitter Blue could lead to "targeted harassment."
• Users who pay a monthly fee will appear in a separate tab in other users' notifications page.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says that Elon Musk's changes to Twitter Blue are "ripe for targeted harassment."

Since taking ownership of Twitter on October 27, Musk has announced sweeping changes to Twitter's verification service.

Users who pay a monthly subscription fee will not only get a blue check next to their name but will also appear in a separate tab in other users' notifications page, alerting them to which verified accounts liked their tweets or replied to them.

"If people can pay $8 to get verified, does that mean strangers can just pay to get into their mentions tab?" Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Wednesday.

"If so, it definitely seems like a tool that's ripe for targeted harassment, especially of women + others on this platform," she said.

The "verified" tab in the Twitter notifications page has long been a feature for verified users.

For accounts which get hundreds of likes, retweets, mentions, replies, and new followers each day, the "verified" tab can help them filter out spam and just view notifications from other verified accounts, like politicians, celebrities, companies, and journalists.

Ocasio-Cortez said that the verification changes would make public conversations with other verified accounts "almost impossible to track."

"IG [Instagram] has this issue and it's unusable in that regard," she continued.

Mark Cuban has weighed in on the problem too, tweeting on Wednesday: "I just spent too much time muting all the newly purchased checkmark accts in an attempt to make my verified mentions useful again."

Historically, Twitter's blue check marks denoted that an account is "authentic, notable, and active." But Musk has criticized this as a "lords & peasants" system which he described as "bullshit," and said that instead Twitter users will be charged $7.99 a month if they want to be verified.

As a result, a blue check mark on Twitter could mean one of two things: Either an account was verified under the previous criteria, or it has a Twitter Blue subscription.

"These changes are designed to help reduce fake, untrustworthy accounts, and promote a higher quality Twitter where people can join and engage safely on our platform," Twitter says.

Twitter Blue is currently only available on iOS and is limited to the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, though Twitter has plans to expand it to Android and to other countries. The current version of Twitter Blue only has access to limited features, with plans to roll out more soon.

Musk and Ocasio-Cortez have repeatedly clashed over issues including unionization, wealth, and free speech.

"Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that "free speech" is actually a $8/mo subscription plan," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted earlier this month.