New York (CNN) Twitter Blue subscribers are the only users of the platform that can use text messages as a two-factor authentication method, Twitter announced Friday.
The change will take place on March 20. Twitter users have two other ways to authenticate their Twitter logins for free: a mobile authenticator app and a security key.
Two-factor authentication, or 2FA, requires users to enter their password and then enter a code or security key to access their accounts. It is one of the main methods for users to keep their Twitter account safe.
“While historically a popular form of 2FA, we’ve unfortunately seen phone number-based 2FA used — and abused — by bad actors,” the company said in a blog post Friday. “So starting today, we will no longer allow accounts to sign up for the SMS/SMS method of 2FA unless they are Twitter Blue subscribers.”
Twitter Blue, which costs $11 a month for iOS and Android subscribers, adds a blue tick to the account of anyone willing to pay for a.
As of 2021, only 2.6% of Twitter users had a 2FA method enabled – and of those, 74.4% used SMS authentication, a Twitter account security report said.
Twitter said non-subscribers have 30 days to disable the text method and sign up another way to log in using 2FA. Disabling text message 2FA will not automatically disconnect the user’s phone number from their account, Twitter said.
Musk responded”Yupto a tweet to claim a telecommunications company used bot accounts “to pump 2FA SMS” and that Twitter was losing $60 million a year “on scam SMS”.
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