Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, has ended the legacy blue checkmarks that were given to journalists, celebrities, and public officials for free. This was done to prevent impersonation and spam on the platform. The legacy blue checks were supposed to end on April 1st but Musk 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 for $44 billion last year, Musk’s goal was to make it 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.
Rohit is a News18.com journalist with a passion for world affairs and a love for football. Follow him on Twitter at @heis_rohit.
