Twitter starts removing blue tick mark from non-paying users
Famous figures including Pope Francis and Bill Gates lose the blue check as Elon Musk pushes paid service.
After months of delays, Twitter has begun removing the signature blue check mark from verified users who have not signed up for the Twitter Blue paid subscription service.
Elon Musk launched Twitter Blue last year after buying the social media platform for $44 billion, introducing an $8 monthly fee for the blue tick and a number of other features.
Accounts with ticks predating Musk’s acquisition, known as “legacy accounts”, were given the option to pay for the subscription after the rollout, or risk losing their tick, which was originally introduced to prevent the imitation of public figures to avoid.
After pushing back the April 1 deadline to sign up several times, Twitter began unchecking thousands of old accounts on Thursday, including prominent figures such as Pope Francis, Bill Gates and Kim Kardashian.
Prominent organizations, including Human Rights Watch and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also lost their checks, with many tweeting about their decision not to subscribe to Twitter Blue.
Human Rights Watch does not pay for the #BlueCheckMark – this is why: https://t.co/1fp25DumH9 pic.twitter.com/QjpsoV5PCH
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) April 20, 2023
Some celebrities explained on Twitter that they kept their check without paying, including author Stephen King who tweeted, “My Twitter account says I subscribed to Twitter Blue. Not me. My Twitter account says I gave a phone number. Not me.’
Many government agencies, nonprofits, and public service accounts also lost the check mark, raising concerns about how the public can distinguish official information channels from other accounts during public events or emergencies.
Under Musk, verified government accounts have been given a gray version of the checkmark and verified media outlets a gold checkmark, although it’s not clear how these designations are handed out.
The blue tick was seen as an indicator of trustworthiness, as it meant that a user’s identity had been verified by the platform — allowing users to identify impersonation accounts and misinformation — and was largely reserved for politicians, celebrities, journalists, and media organizations.
Many Twitter users had objected to the changes fearing that the new system would encourage the spread of misinformation and fake news.
Twitter was forced to suspend the initial launch of Twitter Blue in early November 2022 after a spate of impersonation accounts, but relaunched the service in December following changes.
Unchecking non-paying users on Thursday led to similar chaos, with impersonation accounts re-emerging for public figures like Jeff Bezos, whose fake account declared the billionaire “officially quit Amazon.”