Twitter has announced a plan to revoke legacy verification blue check-mark badges beginning next month, as promised by CEO Elon Musk.
The social network, which the mega-billionaire bought last year in a debt-heavy $44 billion deal, announced on Thursday that starting April 1, it will remove the verified check-mark status of accounts that Twitter had been verified as notable before Musk’s takeover unless they have subscribed to Twitter Blue or the business-focused Twitter Verified Organizations plan.
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The only individual users who will have verified blue check-marks are those paying for Twitter Blue, which in the U.S. costs $8/month via the web and $11/month through in-app payment on iOS and Android. Earlier Thursday, the company announced that Twitter Blue was now available worldwide.
Under the newly retooled verification policy, a gold check-mark for brand and business accounts, as well as a grey check-mark for official government accounts.
Gold or grey check-mark badges will cost $1,000 per month (plus tax) and $50 per month (plus tax) for any additional affiliated accounts, according to the platform.
The social media network first introduced verified accounts back in 2009, at no charge at the time, in an effort to help users identify accounts for celebrities, companies, politicians and news outlets “of public interest” were in fact genuine and not parody or fake accounts.
Musk opined that the old system of verification was “corrupt” and opened up blue check-marks to any paying customer, a move to democratize the status symbol, perhaps, but also a means for Musk to generate a much-needed new revenue stream. “Far too many corrupt legacy Blue ‘verification’ checkmarks exist, so no choice but to remove legacy Blue in coming months,” Musk had tweeted in November.
