Twitter has gone through a lot of changes since Elon Musk took over the platform—the implementation of a paid verification plan, a curated “for you” feed, and the latest addition to the list, a paid two-factor authentication feature.
ICYDK, the social media platform’s official account just announced that you will *soon* lose access to Twitter’s SMS two-factor authentication feature, unless you pay. “Effective March 20, 2023, only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method,” they tweeted. This means that non-Twitter Blue users can still use the feature by downloading a third-party app or setting up a security key.
“While historically a popular form of 2FA, unfortunately we have seen phone-number based 2FA be used - and abused - by bad actors,” the company said in a blog. “So starting today, we will no longer allow accounts to enroll in the text message/SMS method of 2FA unless they are Twitter Blue subscribers. The availability of text message 2FA for Twitter Blue may vary by country and carrier.”
What’s still unclear, however, is how this will affect Twitter users in the Philippines since Twitter Blue isn’t available in the country yet.
What do you think about this update?
*This story originally appeared on Candymag.com. Minor edits have been made by the Cosmo.ph editors.