According to Axios, White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty informed staff via email on Friday that they would have to pay for the subscription out of pocket. The White House has joined other American institutions in refusing to pay for Twitter Blue.
“It is our understanding that Twitter Blue does not provide person-level verification as a service,” Flaherty said.
“Thus, a blue check mark will now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user. Staff may purchase Twitter Blue on their personal social media accounts using personal funds,” he added.
However, the Axios article stated that the guideline does not apply to government agencies, but there is a possibility that similar directives would be issued to other agencies and departments in the future.
White House employees rely on their verified accounts to distribute administrative information to the public. Verification, in conjunction with the specified Twitter profiles, contributes to the validity of those communications, which are trusted by the public.
Twitter will eliminate all unpaid blue ticks on April 1st
The backlash against the Blue badge subscription comes as Twitter prepares to phase out its historically verified program, deleting blue checkmarks from accounts that do not subscribe to its $8 per month Twitter Blue service. The modifications will go into effect on April 1.
Official organizations, such as the White House and certain government employees, will continue to use grey check mark verification, according to Twitter.
The verified account function was added in 2009 to assist users in identifying legitimate accounts of celebrities, politicians, firms and brands, news organizations, and other “public interest” accounts. Formerly, Twitter did not charge for its services.
Elon Musk, who took over the firm in October 2022, condemned the prior certification mechanism as “corrupt.”
“Far too many corrupt legacy Blue ‘verification’ checkmarks exist, so no choice but to remove legacy Blue in coming months”, he had tweeted in November.