Twitter has announced that it will be winding down its legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks starting on April 1st. This move follows Elon Musk’s threat to remove the checkmarks, and while Musk is known for April Fool’s Day pranks, Twitter’s announcement appears to be genuine. However, individuals can retain their blue checkmark by signing up for Twitter Blue, the company’s subscription service launched in 2021.
Twitter Blue costs $84 a year or $8 a month and provides users with power features such as the ability to undo a tweet, save bookmarks to folders, and, for paying users, a blue checkmark. While charging for verification may provide additional revenue for Twitter, building a replacement for the legacy verification program has proved to be challenging. When Musk first relaunched Twitter Blue in November 2022, the program was inundated with users who paid for counterfeit accounts pretending to be notable users like former President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, LeBron James, and Nintendo.
To combat this, Musk pulled the program for a few weeks and relaunched it in December with additional steps for reviewing and approving subscribers. Twitter Blue also provides paying users with the ability to edit a tweet up to five times within 30 minutes, create tweets up to 4,000 characters long, post HD videos, and see 50% fewer ads in their home timelines, with their tweets being prioritized among replies, mentions, and searches.
For companies and organizations, Twitter Blue costs $1,000 a month for the main account and $50 a month for each additional related account. While the charging for verification provides additional revenue for Twitter, it also offers a way for Musk to show his disdain for government agencies, journalists, and other notable users who rely on the blue checkmark to verify their identities on the platform.
