Twitter said on Friday that the service will restrict the usage of text texts for 2FA to paying customers exclusively.
As on March 20th, “only Twitter Blue customers will be allowed to utilise SMS texts as a two-factor authentication method,” the company said via tweet.
The goal of two-factor authentication is to increase account security by requiring account holders to use more than just a password. Second-factor authentication (2FA) is supported on Twitter through text message, authentication app, and security key.
According to a blog post published on Wednesday that the business tweeted a link to, they think “bad actors” are abusing phone-number-based 2FA.
In response to a user’s tweet claiming Twitter was altering policy “because Telcos Using Bot Accounts to Pump 2FA SMS” and that the business was losing $60 million per year “on scam SMS,” Twitter CEO and founder Elon Musk wrote, “Yup.”
Formerly reserved only for verified political, celebrity, journalistic, and other prominent individuals’ accounts, the blue check mark is now available to anybody willing to pay.
At the beginning of this month, Twitter announced that the monthly cost of a Twitter Blue membership for Android will be $11, matching the cost for iOS users.