After Twitter officially announced the removal of blue verification marks from the accounts of users who obtained them for free, the site has already implemented its threat to withdraw the blue verification mark from any account whose owner does not pay for verification, but it is noteworthy that 3 accounts that did not participate in the verification service “Twitter” were retained. Blue” with the blue badge.
After the implementation of the decision, the form of the social site changed rapidly, with the withdrawal of the blue marks that were granted years ago once the user’s identity was verified, according to certain conditions, including the fame of the account holder.
And the blue tick disappeared from the accounts of personalities such as Justin Bieber, Cristiano Ronaldo, Bill Gates or Lady Gaga, as well as from the accounts of many journalists and activists, including even Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter.
My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t.
My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t.— Stephen King (@StephenKing) April 20, 2023
The blue authentication mark was also withdrawn from the accounts of many officials in political life, but some of them got the gray authentication mark for government accounts or some organizations. This is the case of Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the US House of Representatives.
The blue tick now refers to users who pay $8 a month to get this badge and other benefits (increased account visibility, tech perks, less ads), like Donald Trump Jr. or the Dalai Lama.
The verification tag or “blue tick” on Twitter helps to authenticate the identity of its holders and distinguishes them from fraudsters. Twitter had about 300,000 verified users under the blue verification system, many of them journalists, athletes and public figures.
Marquis Brownlee, a content creator with six million followers, tweeted, “I know I’m going to get criticized for keeping the blue tick, but that’s okay, I need to edit tweets.”
Others expressed their surprise at this step, such as the famous writer Stephen King, who has seven million followers.
“My Twitter account says I signed up for Twitter Blue. This is wrong. My Twitter account says I gave my phone number (for verification). This is wrong,” he wrote on the platform Thursday. Elon Musk responded by tweeting, “No thanks for duty.”
In another tweet, the Twitter boss noted that he “personally pays for some of the subscriptions.”
It turned out that three celebrities did not lose the “blue tick” on Twitter, despite their refusal to pay for the verification service. It turned out to be about Canadian actor William Shatner, basketball star LeBron James and American writer Stephen King.
Musk responded to a tweet in which he stated that he personally pays the subscriptions of some accounts on Twitter to keep them documented with the blue ticks, saying that he only pays for three accounts, belonging to comedian William Shatner, basketball player LeBron James and writer Stephen King.
Twitter has removed labels describing global media organizations as government- or state-funded, a move that comes after the Elon Musk-owned platform began removing blue verification marks from accounts that don’t pay monthly fees.
Among those organizations that are no longer classified is National Public Radio in the United States, which announced last week that it would stop using Twitter after designating its main account as “state media,” a term also used to designate media controlled by Russia and China. .
The billionaire had to delay the launch of Twitter Blue several times, causing confusion and chaos on the network. And in November, Musk affirmed his desire to “give more power to the people” and overthrow “the current system of landlords and villagers, between those who have the blue tick and those who don’t.”
“Messages of verified accounts will be published by default,” he said, while tweets belonging to people who did not pay for verification will be treated like spam in e-mail inboxes, a file that “can be viewed despite everything.”
Subscribing, according to Mask, would also contribute to countering fake or automated accounts, and to diversify incomes, while many brands have moved away from the platform.
