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A new era onTwitterhas begun.
The social media platform known for its verification badge in the shape of a blue checkmark used to distinguish businesses, government officials, and celebrities began removing the coveted symbol from many of its most prominent platform users on Thursday.
The change comes after anupdate to its subscription service(Twitter Blue) allowed paying users to be given the blue check mark on their profile as part of their $8 subscription in November. Because of the change, the companyannounced on March 23that all users must enlist in the service to keep the symbol on their profile.
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“Starting April 1, we’ll be winding down our legacy Verification program, and accounts that were verified under the previous criteria (active, notable, and authentic) will not retain a blue checkmark unless they are subscribed to Twitter Blue,” explains a statement on the platform’sonline help center.
After no changes were made,the platform shared through a tweeton its “Twitter Verified” profile that the date for the change had been updated to Thursday, leaving users likeCiarato tweet, “Blue check or no check… I know my fans still checkin.”
The Game, whose blue checkmark has also been removed, took amore humorous approachtweeting, “Check gone but the checks still coming.”
Twitter CEOElon Muskshared in atweet to his own social media accountthat he was “personally” paying the subscription service for a few notable figures. After authorStephen Kingtweeted that he had not paid for the subscriptionbut was still seeing the symbol on his page, Musk replied to his tweet: “You’re welcome, namaste.”
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According to Mashable, “only around 600,000 out of Twitter’s reportedly 250 million users have subscribed.” The outlet adds that “fewer than 5 percent” of the accounts verified before the subscription service update remain with the blue checkmark.
source: people.com
