Twitter Blue

This repository contains information about Twitter Blue subscriptions.

Please note

As of today's update (22 January 2023), there are just over 250k accounts listed here that are currently subscribed to Twitter Blue, but this does not mean that there are only 250k Twitter Blue subscribers.

In the first round we identified most Blue subscribers — around 95% according to reported estimates based on internal leaks (see the next section for links). My rough guess would be that there are currently somewhere between 275k and 325k subscribers in total. It would be possible to make this estimate more precise based on data we've collected, but I haven't had time. If anyone has internal information about current numbers, I'd be interested to hear it.

About this project

This repository is a continuation of a data collection project started by Casey Ho and me (Travis Brown) in November 2022.

Twitter Blue was first launched on 5 November 2022, and had stopped accepting subscriptions by 11 November. The Washington Post reported the following week that "about 150,000 users" had subscribed to the new Twitter Blue during those initial few days, based on information from an internal source.

We eventually identified 145,454 of those initial subscribers, building on an earlier list of 135k we had compiled that was reviewed and verified by the Washington Post. This work was also cited in the New York Times, Business Insider, and the SPLC's Hatewatch.

Methodology

We compiled this list by combining two approaches. The first uses a Twitter profile scraper that is one of the components of the Hassreden-Tracker project, which was supported by Prototype Fund in 2022. The second involves searching the Twitter API for tweets by Twitter Blue subscribers, with queries designed to cover areas of the Twitter graph that the first approach may miss (for example non-English-language accounts).

Format

The data/accounts.csv file has the following fields:

1. Account ID
2. Screen name
3. Legacy verification status
4. Follower count
5. Date of first identification as Blue subscriber
6. Timestamp of first identification as Blue subscriber
7. Subscription status

Note that the follower count may be less current than the status information (follower account updates happen separately and less often, since they affect most lines in the file, and make the more interesting parts of the change history less visible).

The legacy verification status will either be empty (no legacy verification) or one of the following values:

• B: verified as a business account
• G: verified as a government account
• V: verified but verification type is not specified

Note that affiliate verification is not tracked here.

The subscription status will be one of the following:

• B: Subscribed to Twitter Blue
• U: Unsubscribed
• S: Permanently suspended
• D: Self-deactivated