Twitter relaunches premium service

Twitter has once again attempted to launch its premium service, a month after a previous attempt failed.

The social media platform said it would let users buy subscriptions to Twitter Blue to get a blue check mark and access special features starting Monday.

The company owned by billionaire Elon Musk has also started granting a new gold-colored check mark to businesses on the platform. The gold label began appearing Monday on the account profiles for Coca-Cola, Nike, Google and dozens of other big corporations.

“The gold checkmark indicates that the account is an official business account through Twitter Blue for Business,” the company says on a support web page.

Twitter's blue check mark was originally given to companies, celebrities, government entities and journalists verified by the platform. After Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October, he launched a service granting blue checks to anyone willing to pay $8 a month. But it was inundated by imposter accounts, including those impersonating Nintendo, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Musk's businesses Tesla and SpaceX, so Twitter suspended the service days after its launch.

The relaunched service will cost $8 a month for web users and $11 a month for iPhone and iPad users. San Francisco-based Twitter says subscribers will see fewer ads, be able to post longer videos and have their tweets featured more prominently. Twitter's website doesn't say if business accounts must pay extra for the gold label or if it is granted automatically.

The company, in turmoil since Musk took control in October, is also facing many lawsuits from employees fired in mass layoffs.

Last week, powerhouse labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan and former Twitter employees stood in front of San Francisco's federal courthouse with a message for Musk: They won't back down.

"The richest man in the world is not above the law," said Liss-Riordan, whose team represents clients in four class-action lawsuits against Twitter.

The first case was filed one day before Twitter's first round of mass layoffs Nov. 4 with Emmanuel Cornet as one of the lead plaintiffs. Cornet was the first employee to be terminated from Twitter. The case alleges Cornet did not receive proper notice under the federal and state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act or severance pay.

The latest case, filed Wednesday, alleges that layoffs disproportionately targeted women. The complaint cited a report that 57% of female employees and 47% of male employees were laid off Nov. 4, which was found to be statistically significant.

Liss-Riordan also represents Dmitry Borodaenko, the lead plaintiff in a case against the company alleging discrimination against employees with disabilities. Borodaenko, a cancer survivor vulnerable to COVID-19, said he was fired after refusing to return to the office.

A decision expected next week on an emergency motion filed by Liss-Riordan will determine what course of litigation the workers are able to take.

Though laid-off employees have not received official severance agreements from the company, Twitter has indicated it will have employees sign a release of claims to receive their severance. Signing the document would prevent the former employees from taking legal action, Liss-Riordan said. Her motion would prevent Twitter from seeking those releases without first notifying employees of the pending class-action lawsuits and contact information for legal counsel.