Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, has announced that the social media platform’s legacy account verification tags will be deleted by next week. In an interview with the BBC, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, stated that Twitter’s legacy blue ticks “will all be gone by next week.”
Early this month, the network erupted into even more disarray when Twitter removed metadata that distinguished between its historically verified accounts and Twitter Blue members, further confusing users.
With the revisions, it became impossible to distinguish between accounts that had paid for blue checkmarks and those that had legacy badges. Mr. Musk previously stated that the business would remove blue ticks from the accounts of older verified users on April 1st, but the adjustments have not yet been implemented extensively.
Only paid accounts eligible for Verification Badge
Only accounts that paid the corporation $8 or $11 per month would be eligible for the badge under the new rules. Also, only a few users’ accounts, including The New York Times, lost their “verified” blue tick after the news organization stated that it would not sign up for premium verification. On Twitter, Doja Cat has also lost her blue tick. When a fan discovered Doja Cat’s missing blue tick and told her “it’s over,” the “Woman” singer responded, “Only fans have blue ticks.”
The social media site is currently deleting verified checkmarks from legacy accounts that refuse to pay an $8 premium for Twitter Blue.
This came after CNN reporter Oliver Darcy stated that the New York Times would not pay for verification.
When asked about the New York Times losing its blue tick on Wednesday, Musk reportedly remarked, “It’s a small amount of money, so I don’t know what their problem is.”
Musk went on to say that he does not want Twitter to promote “some anointed class of journalists” who decide what is news.
“I’m hopeful that this can be more a case of the public choosing the narrative, as opposed to the media choosing the narrative,” he told the BBC.
Legacy of Twitter’s Verification Tick Marks
Twitter’s verification marks, represented by a blue check next to the user’s account name, were established in 2009, nearly three years after the site’s introduction so that the tags could prove a user’s identity.
Musk had previously referred to Twitter’s old verification program as a “lords and peasants” system, and in a deleted tweet earlier this month, he stated that there would be a “grace” period of a few weeks before the verification checks for accounts that did not pay for the badge would be removed “unless they tell us they won’t pay now.”
The Tesla CEO has now confirmed that the legacy blue ticks will be deleted from accounts by the end of next week. He justified the move by telling the BBC that any social media firm that does not have a paid-for verification system is likely to run into problems with AI.
