Elon Musk is killing the era of Twitter’s traditional blue checkmark
Twitter has reportedly discontinued the old blue checkmarks, a feature that was given to journalists, celebrities and government officials for free to prevent impersonation and spamming on the platform.
The old blue checks were supposed to expire on April 1st, but Twitter owner Elon Musk moved the expiration date to April 20th.
The new verification tokens are only available to paid users, companies, authorities and civil servants.
BREAKING: Legacy Check marks have started to disappear. pic.twitter.com/PRQYvGFfjk— T(w)itter Daily News (@TitterDaily) April 20, 2023
The verified account label now reads “This account has been verified because they have subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”
Some users experienced a “flashing” blue checkmark on their profiles, while others lost their blue checkmarks entirely.
Twitter has removed legacy checkmarks from even the highest-profile figures, including Pope Francis.
After buying the social media giant, Musk’s goal was to push the advertising-dependent platform, which he bought last year for $44 billion, into a paid-to-play model.
Beyond monetization, Musk says this decision is a step toward promoting transparency and fairness in social media.
It remains to be seen how this change will affect Twitter’s verification process and whether other social media platforms will follow suit.
Read all the Latest Tech News here.
