Twitter confirms deadline for removing ‘legacy’ verified check marks

By William On Apr 12, 2023

If you want to keep your blue check on Twitter, you’ll need to hand over payment details in the next few days, according to Elon Musk.

Twitter’s CEO has confirmed that the latest deadline for the company to remove ‘legacy’ blue ticks is April 20 – just over a week away.

The date is believed to be a sly reference to cannabis, which is associated with the number 420 due to the time of day when it is traditionally smoked.

Musk was famously filmed smoking the drug during a live webcast with comedian Joe Rogan in 2018.

He tweeted the update and also confirmed the news in a “hurriedly arranged” bombshell interview with the BBC, accusing the interviewer of lying.

Musk tweeted the new update Tuesday evening in a short message: “Deadline for removing legacy Blue checks is 4/20.”

Musk tweeted on Tuesday night: “Deletion deadline for old blue checks is 4/20.”

What are ‘old’ check marks on Twitter?

The blue check mark on Twitter used to indicate an account that was notable or authentic, such as that of a celebrity or politician.

But Elon Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion in October, has changed that. Under its ownership, the blue tick signifies that an account holder is paying for their Twitter Blue subscription service.

Currently, some users who got a blue check before Musk took ownership still have it on their account.

Musk calls these “old” ticks – and he now says they will all be removed by April 20, 2023. The only way to keep the check mark after that is to subscribe to Twitter Blue.

Twitter previously said April 1 would be when the “legacy” checkmarks would be removed – though many remained after this date, causing confusion.

On Twitter, the blue check mark at the end of an account holder’s name is used to indicate that an account belongs to someone of public interest, such as a celebrity, politician, or journalist.

The whole point of the blue tick was that it could verify the identity of a notable person and distinguish him or her from an impostor.

However, under Musk’s ownership, the tick is now simply an indicator that an account is subscribed to Twitter Blue, the platform’s subscription service that costs up to £11 a month in the UK.

Twitter Blue gives subscribers access to several exclusive features, such as custom app icons, the ability to undo a tweet immediately after posting, and, for subscribers in certain countries, the ability to edit tweets.

Meanwhile, some features that have long been available on the free version of Twitter — such as voting in polls and two-factor authentication via SMS — will soon become Twitter Blue exclusives.

It is thought that Musk – who bought the social media network in October for $44bn (£5bn) – is trying to get Twitter’s user base to pay a monthly fee to boost profits.

April 20 is believed to be a reference to cannabis, which is associated with the number 420 due to the time of day it is traditionally smoked, and in turn the date 4/20 (April 20). Musk was famously filmed smoking the drug during a live webcast with comedian Joe Rogan in 2018 (pictured)

In the UK, Twitter Blue costs £9.60 a month for desktop and £11 for iOS and Android and adds a blue tick next to the username, among other things

Musk has also rolled out new gold and gray ticks to denote verified companies and government agencies respectively, charging £1,000 a month for them.

The South African-born entrepreneur gave his biggest interview on Wednesday since taking over Twitter, with the BBC at Twitter HQ in San Francisco.

While discussing the topic of hate speech on Twitter, Musk accused BBC interviewer James Clayton of lying because he was unable to substantiate his claims.

Musk also said Twitter had “four months to live” if he didn’t make changes and cut costs to save the company from bankruptcy.

The billionaire owner confirmed that about 80 percent of his staff have been laid off since he took over, including Twitter’s global communications team.

All emails sent to press@twitter.com now receive a poop emoji in reply, while Musk seems to have taken over the role of communication himself, tweeting updates regularly.

Twitter now has about 1,500 employees, a sharp drop from “just under 8,000 employees” before it acquired the company in October.

Musk also revealed that his takeover had been painful and that he felt “constantly attacked,” but that the company is finally breaking even financially.

And he revealed that he had gone to sleep on a couch on the seventh floor of Twitter’s headquarters.

Also this week, Musk shut down the company that owned Twitter — Twitter Inc — and incorporated it into its own company, called X Corp.

The boss of Twitter and Tesla seemed to allude to the news with a simple tweet with the letter X.

X Corp will be the parent company of all of Musk’s endeavors, including SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and an upcoming platform he refers to as “an “everything app.”

This app could one day include parts or all of Twitter, as well as online services and utilities such as ridesharing, food delivery, and more.

Timeline of Elon Musk’s eventful time on Twitter to date

October 27: Musk officially becomes the new owner of Twitter, tweeting ‘the bird has been freed’.

November 1st: Musk confirms plans to change the system of ‘Blue Tick’ verification on Twitter, for a reduced subscription fee of $8 per month.

the 4th of November: Musk is firing half of Twitter’s staff as a supposed cost-cutting measure, claiming he had “no choice.”

November 9: Musk launches the “Twitter Blue” subscription service that verifies accounts for a monthly fee.

November 11: The Twitter Blue service has been interrupted because accounts have purchased verification and are using it to impersonate brands and public figures.

November 12: Musk fires 80 percent of Twitter contractors without warning.

November 15: Musk fires employees who posted negatively about him on business messaging app Slack. The lawsuit between Musk and Twitter is dismissed.

November 16: Twitter employees are told to sign a pledge to remain in their position where they would “work long hours at high intensity” or receive three months of severance pay, resulting in a mass exodus.

November 18: A news ticker was projected at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco calling Musk a “space Karen,” “mediocre male child,” and “bankruptcy baby.”

November 23: A Twitter user reported that 5.4 million phone numbers and email addresses were leaked onto the dark web before his account was suspended.

November 26: Financial Times revealed that 50 of the platform’s top 100 advertisers have paused their ads.

November 29: Platform game reported that Twitter is in the process of reinstating about 62,000 banned accounts that each have more than 10,000 followers.

12 December: Twitter Blue has relaunched with the new Blue Tick review process.

January 11: Twitter will begin automatically redirecting users to the “For You” tab — its algorithmic feed of tweets — every time they open the app.

February 8th: Twitter extends character limit to 4,000 for Twitter Blue subscribers in the US. Soon after, the site encountered technical problems.

12th of February: Musk orders staff to overhaul Twitter’s tweet promotion algorithm after his Super Bowl tweet didn’t get enough impressions.

15 February: Twitter announces it will be removing SMS two-factor authentication (2FA) from Twitter’s free version — a decision that a security expert has labeled “absurd” and will lead to “so many accounts being hacked.”

February 25: Twitter unveils another round of layoffs that reduced the workforce to under 2,000 — a sharp drop from the 7,500 employed when the billionaire first took over in October.

28th of March: Musk announces that it will prevent people from voting in Twitter polls or having their tweets appear in the For You tab if they don’t pay for Twitter Blue.

11 April: Musk gives an interview with the BBC at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco.