Twitter’s chaotic verification check drama
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.
Tomorrow, 4/20, we are removing legacy verified checkmarks. To remain verified on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue here: https://t.co/gzpCcwOXAX
Organizations can sign up for Verified Organizations here: https://t.co/YtPVNYypHU
— Twitter Verified (@verified) April 19, 2023
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Final date for removing legacy Blue checks is 4/20
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 11, 2023
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.
I’m paying for a few personally
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2023
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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.
This past week my Twitter “Blue Check” disappeared for a few days, and then reappeared today.
The Universe brims with mysteries. pic.twitter.com/EKFThp4DuX
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 23, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
So my blue check has reappeared. I had nothing to do with that, and am definitely not paying
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) April 23, 2023
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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.
It attached itself to me the minute I posted about dril getting it for punishment. How did it happen so fast. like the movie It Follows
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) April 22, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
change your name and it triggers a checkmark removal. But then don’t talk about it again or you will get another. Im serious lol
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) April 22, 2023
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.
