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Twitter removed blue legacy checkmarks from non-paying users’ accounts on Thursday, weeks after the Elon Musk-owned company initially announced That change will begin.
company Confirmed On Wednesday, the company’s subscription service, Twitter Blue, will begin removing blue checkmarks from users who don’t pay for it. By Thursday afternoon, checkmarks had started disappearing from non-paying accounts.
Before Musk took Twitter private, blue checkmarks were limited to notable figures in government, the media, or who were otherwise in the public eye and increased the risk of impersonation. Musk said that Twitter Blue will offer the option of payment verification soon after completing its $44 billion acquisition of the social media site.
The change means that only paying customers who have “verified” their phone number will be entitled to Twitter verification and a blue checkmark. Government accounts and some corporate accounts will retain verification through a different set of icons in silver and gold, respectively.
The ensuing uproar over the initial price — $20 — and a poorly executed rollout including mass impersonations of public figures and corporations forced Musk to delay removing the legacy verification. Twitter later rolled out color-coded verification symbols for verified brands or organizations affiliated with the government
At the time of publication, there were significant gaps in institutional verification, leaving them open to the possibility of impersonation. The Twitter accounts of several US Attorney’s offices remained unverified, as did various branches of the US Department of Justice and field offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Musk has used his power on the platform to manipulate the verification and labeling of media outlets including NPR and the New York Times. elected to stop using the platform in an official capacity after NPR was falsely labeled as being state-affiliated; The New York Times lost its verified status on its primary account after the outlet did not pay for verification on Twitter.
