New Delhi: Twitter chief Elon Musk, who drew criticism for blocking accounts of journalists and later restored them, on Saturday announced the platform will incorporate mute and block signals from Blue Verified accounts as downvotes.


In the latest announcement Musk said, "Twitter will start incorporating mute and block signals from Blue Verified (not Legacy Blue) as downvotes".






Musk also noted that all the user actions will factor into a neural network model for a tweet and the account tweeting, including positive actions.


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"To be clear, all user actions will factor into a NN model for a tweet and the account tweeting, including positive actions. As user accounts develop credibility, their actions will have greater weight, similar to how @CommunityNotes works," he added.


Downvote basically implies flagging a tweet as irrelevant and offensive. Twitter introduced a new downvote reply feature on the platform last year. 


In his tweet, the Tesla CEO made it clear explicitly that people holding the “legacy blue” checkmarks will not be able to take the benefits of Musk’s new feature. 


On December 12, Twitter Inc relaunched a revamped version of its subscription service Twitter Blue at a higher price for Apple users. The revamped service allowed subscribers to edit tweets, upload 1080p videos and get a blue checkmark post account verification. The new features include a blue tick for verified individuals, a gold tick to denote business and a grey tick for governments and government organisation. The Android users will pay $8 per month for the verification badge, but iPhone users will have to share $11a month.


Also, Elon Musk said late Friday he would reinstate the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended after he accused them of endangering his family.


"The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now," the Twitter chief wrote.


Musk received stern warnings from the United Nations and European Union after the suspension of the accounts of half a dozen prominent journalists. The suspensions were triggered by a disagreement over a Twitter account called ElonJet, which tracked Musk's private plane using publicly available information, reported news agency Reuters. He accused them of endangering his family. 


Musk later published out a poll asking whether he should restore the suspended accounts now or in a week's time. Nearly 59 percent of the 3.69 million who took part said he should restore the accounts now.