Twitter chief executive Elon Musk late Saturday night said the use of free authentication apps for two-factor authentication (2FA) will remain free. This comes after the social media giant’s users were served an ultimatum from the app to either subscribe to the platform’s new premium service or lose the ability to secure their accounts via 2FA.
Musk’s announcement prompted a reply from entrepreneur Anupam Mittal who questioned why 2FA is available for Twitter Blue when it is not secure.
“If it’s not secure why make it available for Twitter Blue? Real reason to discontinue sms auth is most likely the massive savings in sms costs. And that’s a perfectly good decision. Why the confusing narrative?”, Mittal, who is currently a judge on reality TV show Shark Tank India, tweeted.
Earlier, the users had received a message which warned them about losing the ability to protect their accounts through SMS 2FA unless they paid $8 per month for Twitter Blue subscription.
Twitter also said should the users fail to subscribe, they will be locked out of their accounts until they remove this feature.
In simple words, a 2FA feature involves users to add an auto-generated code received on their mobile phones via an SMS. It is means to add a second layer of security to the accounts which are password protected.
The codes used for two-factor authentication are generated by apps like Google Authenticator or Microsoft authenticator and they can only be sent through an SMS.
Twitter had acknowledged that the 2FA feature has been popular but has been misused by ‘bad actors’. This move is also fuelled by the fact that Musk has been trying new ways to boost profits of the social media giant he bought last October at a whopping $44 billion.
Among the means to get profits is the Twitter Blue subscription, allowing any user to pay for verification previously reserved for journalists, celebrities and other well-known people.
