Elon Musk Kills Off Twitter’s Legacy Blue Checkmark Era
Twitter has reportedly put an end to its legacy blue checkmarks, a feature that was given to journalists, celebrities, and public officials for free to prevent impersonation and spam on the platform.
The legacy blue checks were supposed to end on April 1st, but Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, shifted the end date to April 20th.
The new verification marks will only be available to paid users, businesses, government entities, and officials.
The label of a verified account will now read, “This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”
Some users experienced a “flickering” blue checkmark on their profiles, while others lost their blue checkmarks altogether.
Twitter has removed the legacy checkmarks from even the highest-profile figures, including Pope Francis.
After acquiring the social media giant, Musk’s goal was to shove the advertising-dependent platform he bought for $44 billion last year into a pay-to-play model.
Besides monetization, Musk says this decision is a step toward promoting transparency and fairness in social media.
It remains to be seen how this move will impact Twitter’s verification process, and whether other social media platforms will follow suit.
