Twitter will charge users for text message account security.
Only paid members will be able to use text texts as a two-factor authentication (2FA) technique to secure their accounts, Twitter announced on Friday. Only Twitter Blue subscribers will be allowed to use text texts as their two-factor authentication method after March 20, the company announced in a tweet.
Effective March 20, 2023, only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method. Other accounts can use an authentication app or security key for 2FA. Learn more here:https://t.co/wnT9Vuwh5n
— Support (@Support) February 18, 2023
Two-factor authentication, designed to increase account security, necessitates the usage of a second authentication method in addition to a password by the account holder. Twitter supports 2FA with a security key, an authentication app, and text messages.
According to a Wednesday blog post that the business’s tweet linked to, the company thinks “bad actors” are abusing phone-number-based 2FA. In response to a user tweet that the company was changing policy “because Telcos Using Bot Accounts to Pump 2FA SMS” and that the company was losing $60 million a year “on scam SMS,” Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted “Yup.”
Yup
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 18, 2023
The blue checkmark, which was previously only available to verified accounts of public figures like journalists, legislators, and other well-known people, is now available to anyone willing to pay. Twitter announced last month that the cost of the Twitter Blue subscription for Android users will be the same as that for iOS users: $11 per month.
