Elon Musk is literally doing everything to make money from Twitter for Twitter and one of the ways he’s doing this is by making users pay for their verification badges. In October last year following his $44bn takeover, Musk gave his employees their first ultimatum: Meet his deadline to introduce paid verification on Twitter or pack up and leave. Since then Twitter has been revamping the whole verification process including the legacy verified checkmarks.
The Twitter Boss in December hinted that legacy verified checkmarks will be removed and according to him, the checkmarks were given out in a corrupt way. “In a few months, we will remove all legacy blue checks. The way in which they were given out was corrupt and nonsensical,” reads Elon’s tweet.
According to some reports that hinted in December last year, the legacy checkmarks would supposedly be removed after 90 days starting Jan. 2023. Thereby, after 90 days which is April 1, 2023, the process of removing the legacy checkmarks will begin.
Twitter has now officially confirmed it will “begin winding down [its] legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks” on April 1st, and users should subscribe to its paid verification service, Twitter Blue if they want to keep their blue checks.
“On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks. To keep your blue checkmark on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue,” the company announced via its Twitter Verified account.
Those who wish to keep their checkmarks will have to subscribe to the company’s paid verification service, Twitter Blue, which offers users a blue checkmark next to their names for $11/month through in-app payment and $8/month via the web.
For organizations, to keep a gold or grey check-mark badge they will have to pay $1,000/month (plus tax) and $50/month (plus tax) for each additional affiliate subaccount. Twitter now has an application process for gray checkmarks for eligible government and multilateral accounts.
Previously only accessible within certain regions, Twitter Blue is now available worldwide, offering premium perks to subscribers including a blue verification checkmark, the ability to make 4,000-character tweets, custom icons & themes, priority ranking in conversation replies, access to the ability to edit tweets, thread reader mode, and upload 1080p and longer videos.
The revamped Twitter Blue was initially launched in November last year as a new method to generate revenue on the platform but the program got suspended days later after several fake verified accounts took advantage of the paid verification service to impersonate brands and public figures. It was however relaunched the following month with the company relying on the phone number verification requirement and a review process to stop impersonations.
Prior to Musk selling blue ticks to everyone who can pay a monthly fee, these badges were reserved for only public figures, companies, and organizations that the company referred to as “notable” in an effort to help users identify them easily among the many fake accounts.
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