Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Twitter relaunches paid blue ticks - as Musk reveals enormous increase to character limit

Twitter relaunches paid blue ticks - as Musk reveals enormous increase to character limit

As well as relaunching Twitter Blue, the platform has also rolled out its user-driven fact-checking scheme dubbed "community notes". A huge increase to the character count limit is also on the way, according to Elon Musk.

Twitter has restarted its premium membership after a disastrous launch which saw the platform flooded with imposters.

Elon Musk made expanding the Twitter Blue service a focus after his takeover in October, and chief among the changes was granting members the profile checkmark previously reserved for verified accounts.

But the move quickly descended into farce, as pranksters impersonated the likes of ex-president George W Bush, former prime minister Tony Blair, and the official page of gaming giant Nintendo.

It forced Twitter to pause the service, and it relaunched on Monday after a month on ice, still priced at £6.99 per month in the UK ($8 in the US).


Signing up gives users access to an edit button, the ability to post longer videos, and they will have their posts amplified and see fewer adverts.

Blue's return will also pave the way for Twitter to ditch its "official" tags, which were added to some accounts to distinguish between those who were verified under the previous system and those who were paying members.

Examples included sports institutions, businesses and media outlets, which will soon have the labels replaced by either gold or grey checkmarks.

Musk reveals enormous increase to character limit

Ahead of Blue's comeback, Twitter's billionaire owner also teased changes to the platform's character limit.

Responding to a question about suggestions that the boundary would go from 280 up to a whopping 4,000, Musk simply replied with a one word answer.


The current limit has been in place for five years, having originally stood at 140.

Musk's plan to increase it by more than 1,300% has seen some pushback from users, with some concerned that it would compromise one of Twitter's defining characteristics and risk making it more akin to Facebook.

It would likely be another step on the path to transforming Twitter into "X, the everything app", which Musk has repeatedly pitched as a way of broadening the platform's appeal.

The proposal has drawn comparisons with China's WeChat, which combines familiar features like messaging, a marketplace, and public posts into one place.

Community notes feature comes to UK

Twitter users in the UK may notice another new feature from Monday: community notes.

Designed to combat misinformation, it allows users to add "helpful and informative context to tweets".

Notes can be rated based on their helpfulness, and ones which are received positively will then appear to everyone alongside the tweet.

During testing, the feature was known as Birdwatch and was only available in the US.

Following its wider launch, people in the UK can sign up to get involved, with the feature's dedicated page split into three tabs - "needs your help", "new", and "rated helpful".
An example of a 'community note' on Twitter

The first shows the tweets with notes encompassing diverse views which require more user feedback, the second displays the most recently submitted notes, and the third is where the most upvoted ones live.

To sign up, accounts must have been on Twitter for at least six months, have a verified phone number on a trusted phone carrier, and have no recent violations of the platform's rules.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×