Tumblr has been enjoying a resurgence thanks to some recent policy changes and ongoing chaos at Twitter, and that’s drawn a few real-world celebrities like Ryan Reynolds and Lynda Carter to the platform. Unlike most big social networks, though, Tumblr doesn’t verify high-profile accounts’ authenticity. That’s caused a little confusion since, without a link from some known off-platform account, it’s almost impossible to tell if these accounts are real. Fortunately, Tumblr is rolling out a new feature that will do absolutely nothing to change this — and you can buy it for a one-time fee of $7.99.

The Tumblr Important Blue Internet Checkmark is the latest of a few joke items Tumblr sells on its web store, and it does about what you’d expect: add a blue check — actually two blue checks — next to a blog of your choice. In case it’s not 100 percent clear, this is a complete vanity purchase that confers no special status and requires nothing except paying around $8. Where Twitter’s new verification plan gets you some extra site features via Twitter Blue for $8 a month, your only perk here is that the badge “may turn into a bunch of crabs at any time.” (If your Tumblr hasn’t been updated since 2014 or so, this references an on-site April Fools’ joke.)

More seriously, this joke cements the status quo that Tumblr — currently owned by WordPress.com operator Automattic — isn’t interested in verification. Knowledge of the site’s real-world-famous members is a kind of community lore, mostly centered on author and active Tumblr user Neil Gaiman, who chats with fans regularly about things like Netflix’s Sandman adaptation and whether he is actually Neil Gaiman. (He is.) And for now, it’s likely to stay that way.

Meanwhile, Twitter is still figuring out the precise details of its verification strategy, including when previously verified users who don’t subscribe will lose their checks. But new owner Elon Musk stated today that it will happen in the coming months, asserting that the site needed to be purged of “corrupt” blue badges. His public views on crabs, as well as whether he violated a federal consent decree and asked Twitter engineers to risk prison over it, remain unknown.

Twitter’s app on iOS has been updated to support Elon Musk’s $7.99 per month Twitter Blue. The app’s latest update on the Apple App Store says you have to pay for Blue to get verified on the platform “just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow.”

The new Twitter Blue subscription isn’t available just yet, though. Esther Crawford, a product manager at Twitter confirmed it’s not live right now but says some users “may see us making updates because we are testing and pushing changes in real-time.”

While the updated app initially showed a revamped notifications screen that defaulted to displaying tweets from Verified users in the first tab (helping to promote the idea that paying for the new plan is the best way to make sure people actually see your tweets), this has since disappeared. As pointed out by one of my colleagues at The Verge and reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, the new layout disappears after quitting out of the app and opening it again.

The app displayed a “Blue looks good on you, enjoy your verified checkmark” pop-up when users try to sign up to Blue as well, but without the actual opt-in for displaying a “verified” label on your profile. This message also disappeared from my colleague’s app after quitting and reopening Twitter, so it’s unclear whether or not all users will see this show up.

Whenever Twitter does decide to let users display checkmarks on their profiles, we have an idea about what that process will look like thanks to Wong. App researcher Nima Owji has also given us a glimpse of the new “official account” labels Twitter could start applying to notable users, as well as a “verified account” confirmation on profiles, which indicates an account’s verified “because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue.”

Screenshot: The Verge

It’s still not clear when verification through Twitter Blue will go live (or when it will arrive on Android), but it seems like it’s happening soon. Musk initially gave the developers working on Blue until Monday, November 7th, to complete these changes or else face getting fired.

It looks like verification will be the only feature available with the Twitter Blue subscription to start. Other perks, like fewer ads, the ability to post longer videos, and priority ranking to help “lower the visibility of scams, spam, and bots,” are listed as “coming soon.” Twitter Blue is only available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK for now. Crawford says it’s “coming soon” to Europe.

When Musk announced the new Twitter Blue subscription last week, he hinted at providing access to paywalled articles, but this feature isn’t among those listed in the update. He also pulled the ad-free article perk that came with the previous $4.99 / month Twitter Blue subscription and reportedly pushed to make Twitter’s “edit” button available to all users, not just subscribers. On Friday, Musk laid off around half of Twitter’s employees across several departments, including product trust and safety, policy, communications, tweet curation, ethical AI, and others.

Update, 3:08PM ET: Updated to add information from a product manager at Twitter.

Update, 3:25PM ET: Updated to add more information about Twitter’s upcoming “official account” labels and verified account confirmations.

Update, 4:34PM ET: Updated to note that the revamped notifications tab is no longer available.

Update, 5:15PM ET: Updated to note that not all users will see information about the verification process after updating.

Update, 5:27PM ET: Updated to note that the new Blue subscription is coming soon to Europe.

General Motors has temporarily halted advertising on Twitter after Tesla CEO Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of the social network on Friday (via CNBC). The automaker says it’s pausing paid advertising on Twitter to evaluate “the direction of the platform” under Musk’s leadership, but will continue to use the network to interact with customers.

“We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership,” an emailed statement provided to The Verge by GM spokesperson Dan Flores says. “As is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising. Our customer care interactions on Twitter will continue.”

It’s unclear whether GM’s decision to temporarily pull ads from Twitter stems from the company’s rivalry with Tesla, Musk’s vision of making Twitter a “free speech” platform, or both. On Thursday, a report from the Wall Street Journal highlighted advertisers’ concerns with the future of content moderation on the Musk-owned version of Twitter, as Musk has previously hinted at reversing former President Donald Trump’s ban. Musk attempted to reassure advertisers by posting a tweet saying he will not let Twitter become a “free-for-all hellscape,” but reiterated his goal of creating “a digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.”

Twitter’s new owner has also said he would establish a “content moderation council” with members who have “widely diverse viewpoints,” and won’t make any major decisions to take down content or reinstate a user’s account without the council’s approval. Musk says he still has yet to make any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies, but he promptly fired Twitter’s policy chief, Vijaya Gadde, after he assumed ownership of the company.

GM has doubled down on its efforts to compete with electric vehicle (EV) rivals like Tesla, increasing its investment in electric and autonomous vehicles to $35 billion through 2025, This past July, GM CEO Mary Barra told the Associated Press that she believes GM’s EVs will outsell Tesla by the middle of the decade, and earlier this month, the automaker announced plans to take over Tesla on the energy front as well, creating a new division to sell solar panels and batteries.