Twitter will end its blue checkmark verification system

Twitter blue checkmarks are poised to change again.

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Twitter announced on Friday that it will finally do what its new owner, Elon Musk, has been promising for months: remove the tiny blue checkmarks that previously served as a symbol for well-known accounts whose identities have been verified, unless users are willing to pay $8 per month.

Some have speculated that the adjustment could be part of a sophisticated April Fools' joke because the corporation stated the change would go into effect on April 1.

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However, other users said they saw a pop-up when they logged onto Twitter telling them to sign up for Twitter Blue to keep their check mark.

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Twitter did not immediately respond to comment inquiries.

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Musk announced that he would expand an already-existing paid Twitter version to include paying for a blue check mark. This was once only available to celebrities, authors, journalists, CEOs, and other people whom Twitter had vetted. This was shortly after the company was acquired for $44 billion last October.

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Experts are worried that Musk's new proposal for blue checkmarks will cause confusion on the app about whether accounts' identities have been validated or not.

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Companies can verify their accounts for $1,000 a month, Musk said in a tweet on Friday. He added that "any individual person's Twitter account linked with a verified organization is automatically verified." According to Twitter's information page on verified organizations, affiliate organizations can get a checkmark for an additional $50 fee.

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Twitter's new paid check-mark system separates different accounts into distinct color categories: people get a blue check mark, organizations get a gold check mark, and governments get a gray check mark.

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Musk's new paid blue check mark saw impersonations of well-known corporations and public figures during its initial debut. Twitter swiftly removed the new Twitter Blue and delayed its reintroduction for a month, following which it said that accounts would first need to be "manually validated" before being marked as approved.

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Since Musk took over the company and slashed thousands of jobs, Twitter has been in turmoil. The multibillionaire uses Twitter to announce company news, discuss politics, free speech, and memes. He has more than 130 million followers.

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Since Musk took over, there have been a number of disruptions to the service, often caused by seemingly small changes to the coding of Twitter. Thousands of users were unable to access the site's links and pictures earlier this month.

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At the time, Musk tweeted, "The code stack is incredibly brittle for no apparent reason. Will eventually require a total rewrite."

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Several people have expressed anger at Musk's leadership because they worry about increased hate speech on the website and a lack of safety safeguards. This is particularly after cutbacks and departures left Twitter with a skeletal Trust and Safety team. Some, though, welcome Musk for his promise to expand "free expression" on the platform.