Twitter’s chaotic verification check drama

MoneyInternet NewsTech news
By Yassmine Elbehnaihy
Elon Musk Twitter

Twitter has cancelled its legacy verifications by removing the blue check marks of celebrities and notable figures that have not paid for the app’s monthly subscription, Twitter Blue, Twitter announced on Friday.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The step came after the app’s CEO, Elon Musk’s tweet announcing the deadline of the legacy verification cancelation, as a way to make Twitter Blue subscribers who got their blue check marks with their purchase feel equal to other verified users.

Previously verified users including Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and Pope Francis, have lost their verification check, while the decision excluded a few accounts Musk has stated he is paying for like Stephen King, William Shatner and LeBron James. Other celebrities like Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Ryan Reynolds and Miley Cyrus kept their blue check mark after subscribing to Twitter Blue.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Twitter users started expecting celebrity impersonations to hike, as it would become more difficult to distinguish between a fake account an official one.

Just a few days after the social media platform’s decision went into effect, Twitter started verifying accounts again without them subscribing to Twitter Blue.

Verified users who did not pay for Twitter Blue kept denying that they are Blue users, until it was later announced that only accounts with over a million followers get automatically verified.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Some verified users have denied their blue check mark, finding a loophole of changing their usernames in order to remove the check marks from their accounts.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Among verified users were some celebrities who have passed away, including Chadwick Boseman, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jackson and Anthony Bourdain, whose accounts show a blue check that mentions they are subscribed to Twitter Blue, were verified posthumously.

Twitter’s legacy verification has been planned to go into action earlier, but was postponed multiple times due to impersonation issues, with Twitter starting with giving a grey check, which is a different verification method specified for organizations and governmental institutions.

The social media platform’s subscription system, along with other changes to the platform’s layout and technicalities, and to Twitter’s staff, came after Elon Musk bought Twitter last October for $44 billion.

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