Twitter has announced plans to remove the blue tick of verification from users who don’t pay for the Twitter Blue subscription service.
The Elon Musk owned company / $43 billion play thing / eternally burning dumpster fire says it is winding down the legacy verification program. That means the blue ticks afforded to public figures and those with high followings as a mark of recognising authentic accounts following a manual ID check will be going away.
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Those accounts had continued to hold the status free of charge. Probably because you shouldn’t really have to pay to prove you’re you on a social network where imposters and parody accounts are running wild, despite what the likes of Musk and Mark Zuckerberg like to believe.
However, that’ll change on April 1 when the program ends and with the indentity-proving blue ticks being removed unless the user starts forking over cash. To UK users, that’s between £9.60 and £11 a month.
“Starting April 1, we’ll be winding down our legacy Verification program and accounts that were verified under the previous criteria (active, notable, and authentic) will not retain a blue checkmark unless they are subscribed to Twitter Blue,” the company writes on an FAQ page (via Ars Technica).
“To keep your blue checkmark on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue here. Organizations can sign up for Verified Organisations here.”
The move is part of Musk’s desperate moves to make Twitter profitable following the purchase last year. The efforts have have included laying off all but a skeleton staff and rolling out a half-baked Twitter Blue subscription service in the first place.
So if there’s a scammer impersonating you online, you can no longer rely on the blue tick to prove you’re the real article unless you give Musky a tenner a month. Stay safe out there, folks.
Now we must wait to see if the thousands of noted public figures, journalists and just regular folks who’ve managed to assemble a decent following on the platform will be willing to start forking out for the privilege, or whether this will be the raindrop that breaks the dam.
