What are blue checks on Twitter? Why were verified accounts unable to post on Wednesday?

Twitter faced the biggest hack in its history on Wednesday where everything just went south for the website. Verified accounts of popular public figures like Bill Gates, Elon Musk got hacked and the hackers were spamming the social media platform. This resulted in Twitter putting a temporary muzzle on the verified accounts. However, the issue has now been resolved but resulted in a lot of confusion and panic among some users online.

What are blue checks on Twitter accounts?

A blue tickmark or checkmark next to a Twitter account name is used by social media as a testimony to the authenticity of the account. So usually it is shown next to the names of big-name accounts like celebrities, companies, and accounts of Government personals. A blue tick next to a name is a good thing as helps netizens to differentiate between fake accounts and real accounts.

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Twitter bitcoin hack and Twitter Bitcoin scam

On Wednesday, Twitter restricted all verified accounts from tweeting anything after a team of hackers started spamming from big-name accounts which they had hacked. The tweets sent out by the hacked-verified accounts were reportedly about scams. Moreover, the tweets were a way to persuade people to give their bitcoins and in exchange, they would be sent double the amount.

So, when verified account holders tried to tweet from their accounts during the temporary muzzle, they got an automated message. The message read:

This request looks like it might be automated. To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can't complete this action right now. Please try again later.

The whole hacking incident resulted in a bad day for Twitter. Many Twitter accounts with millions of followers were compromised. Though the issue was resolved later, by 6 pm PT.

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Unverified accounts started a memefest

Meanwhile, there were several netizens who started a meme fest about verified accounts being unable to tweet. Moreover, there were tweets that said that it was time for unverified accounts to shine. There were several other users online who shared GIFs and videos to taunt the silenced accounts. Check out some of the tweets below.

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Image Credits: Yucel Moran Unsplash