Twitter to end two-factor authentication for non-Blue subscribers today

Twitter starting Monday will place its text message-based two-factor authentication behind Blue paywall. Announced in February, Twitter at the time said the step to change the policy was taken as the company believed phone-number-based 2FA was being abused by “bad actors”. Twitter owner Elon Musk also tweeted “Yup” in reply to a user tweet that the company was changing policy “because Telcos Used Bot Accounts to Pump 2FA SMS,” and that the company was losing $60 million a year “on scam SMS.” Effective March 20, 2023, only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method. Learn more here:https://t.co/wnT9Vuwh5n — Twitter Support February 18, 2023 While non-Blue subscribers can enable 2FA on their accounts using authenticator apps like Google Authenticator, most similar apps require users to pay to enable 2FA for their accounts. Earlier, the company also made the blue check mark, previously free for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists, and other public figures, open to anyone prepared to pay.