Elon Musk says verified Twitter users to lose blue check marks soon; Read to know why

‘Chaotic’ would be an understatement if one wanted to describe the Elon Musk-led transformation of micro-blogging platform Twitter. Musk himself has previously urged Twitter users to stay with him and be patient as Twitter will be going through many changes as he and his team figure out the next strategy. An issue that has caught eyeballs is to do with the verification badges Twitter had issued out to prominent figures and organisations. 

New updates have regularly surfaced by Musk himself regarding these authentication marks on profiles, the latest of which has been the Twitter CEO saying that he was going to remove all legacy blue checks as they were given out in a corrupt manner. Pointing towards the previous team, Musk said “Twitter management and board lied to make their user numbers seem artificially higher, so turned a blind eye to fake/spam accounts”. The series of events began with him stating that soon everyone would need to pay under a category called “Twitter Blue” if they want their blue ticks to stay regardless of who they were. 

New features in paid subscriptions

The paid subscription has begun in Canada, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia with US$ 8 per month and US$ 11 per month for ioS users. More than 4,00,000 Twitter accounts have a blue tick mark which include government departments, companies, celebrities, journalists and prominent individuals. The authentication badge, after a review, was given to distinguish these accounts with other accounts who may have tried to impersonate them. 

The paid subscription allows the users to cancel or renew the badge anytime they want. The basic eligibility for having the badge is to have a Twitter account which is older than 90 days and a valid phone number linked to the account. Different colours have been assigned to different fragments of people and associations. The company announced, “Starting today, when you subscribe your account will get access to subscriber-only features including Edit Tweet, 1080p video uploads, reader mode, and a blue checkmark (once your account has been reviewed).” They added, “Soon, subscribers with the blue checkmark will get priority ranking in search, mentions, and replies to help lower the visibility of scams, spam and bots.”