Twitter chief Elon Musk followed through this week on his pledge to remove the blue check mark from high-profile users or public organizations, moving instead to a subscription-based service, Twitter Blue.
Tomorrow, 4/20, we are removing legacy verified checkmarks. To remain verified on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue here: https://t.co/gzpCcwOXAX
— Twitter Verified (@verified) April 19, 2023
Organizations can sign up for Verified Organizations here: https://t.co/YtPVNYypHU
On Thursday, the verification of some of the site’s biggest accounts disappeared—affecting celebs from Oprah Winfrey and Kim Kardashian to media personalities like MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, and many others in between.
The new reality hit some particularly hard.
Elon thinks this is a funny joke. As a former verified account who lost their blue checkmark, I know how dangerous this really is. People are going to die. https://t.co/5HJkDLmko5
— Julie Melner (@UsingCigarettes) April 20, 2023
I will not now - nor ever - be paying for a blue check. I'm not paying into a capitalistic, classist scheme run by a billionaire. I'll be putting my $8 towards @TheTNHoller. https://t.co/h2AQ3hH1oz
— Senator Charlane Oliver (@CharlaneOliver) April 21, 2023
So by revoking my blue check mark because I wouldn’t pay some arbitrary fee, someone can just be me and say a bunch of bullshit. Does that mean Twitter and @elonmusk are liable for defamation or identity theft or fraud?
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) April 20, 2023
Elon took my blue check away! I’m unverified! After all these years and thousands of tweets and free content, this worm has the nerve to de-certify me!
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) April 20, 2023
He took the Pope's bluecheck away, incredible stuff pic.twitter.com/1w81dKGXSk
— Jesse Hawken (@jessehawken) April 20, 2023
keeping track of notifications will be much harder now that you can't filter them by verification. but whatever. let this place burn.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 20, 2023
Rest assured, former blue check marks, life will go on.