You will need to pay for Twitter’s two-factor authentication SMS

The Elon Musk-owned company announced the changes last month, saying only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method.

Twitter Blue is Musk’s subscription option for Twitter since he acquired the social media platform in October last year. Web users need to pay Ksh.993 ($8) a month while mobile users have a Ksh.1,365 ($11) monthly plan.

Now, the platform is urging regular users using the SMS two-factor authentication to remove it or risk losing access to the social networking site.

“You must remove text message two-factor authentication,” reads the notice being shown to users once they log in, “Only Twitter Blue subscribers can use the text message two-factor authentication method.”

Two-factor authentication is meant to make accounts more secure by letting an account holder use a second authentication method in addition to a password.

On top of the text-based method, Twitter currently supports authentication apps and a security key, which the company says users can use as measures to keep their accounts safe.

In a blog post last month, the platform said the SMS-based authentication is being abused by “bad actors.”

“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. “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.”

Musk himself endorsed a tweet claiming the company was changing policy “because Telcos Used Bot Accounts to Pump 2FA SMS,” and that Twitter was losing $60 million a year “on scam SMS.”

This now increases the lists of premium services users have to pay for, among them the blue verification mark, ability to upload longer videos and an Edit Tweet option.