Elon Musk’s first major update to the Twitter platform lasted less than a week, as the company has suspended sign-ups for its Twitter Blue verification subscription service.
The suspension comes after the sign-up option first became available on Wednesday in the sidebar menu of the app. However, since late Thursday, the option has since been removed and the sign-up page now only offers information about the service.
The move to suspend signing up for the service comes as several accounts paid for the service and then began impersonating companies and other officials. Musk tweeted earlier this week that parody accounts must specify such in their bio but quickly upped that to name amongst criticism.
“To be more precise, accounts doing parody impersonations,” Musk said in a clarifying tweet. “Basically, tricking people is not ok.”
A sales employee at Twitter confirmed to NBC News that the company pulled back Twitter Blue’s verified service after several accounts began impersonating companies, leaving many unable to tell between real and fake accounts.
Shortly after Musk’s tweets on Thursday, the service’s sign-up feature was taken down. It is not clear when it will be restored or if it will remain shut down.
Before the launch of the service, the social media site appeared to establish an “official” label for accounts associated with a company, government agency, or notable public figure. But hours after it was added Musk “killed” it.
However, now Musk appears to be looking into a similar option and Twitter shared that some accounts would have it reinstated to help with impersonation troubles.
“Rolling out soon, Twitter will enable organizations to identify which other Twitter accounts are actually associated with them,” Musk tweeted.
The impersonations carried serious implications for a number of accounts including drug companies and weapon manufacturers, the employee shared with NBC News.
The employee said that an account created with the likeness of the drug company Eli Lilly caused a serious problem on Thursday when it tweeted “we are excited to announce insulin is free now.”
The tweet was left up for at least two hours and the company saw its stock drop drastically after the tweet was posted, according to investors.com. Other companies were also impersonated and saw their stock impacted, despite apologies from actual accounts.
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