Ever since Elon Musk took over as the new owner and CEO of Twitter, he has been working extensively to transform the microblogging platform. Amongst the array of new updates to the application, a prominent one has to do with authentication checkmarks. Payment was linked to the ownership of the blue tick for various reasons some of which includes decreasing unlawful activities.
But now replying to Mike Solana’s tweet, Musk replied that all legacy blue checks will be removed in a few months. He believes that they are being given out in a corrupt and nonsensical way. Pointing towards the previous team Musk said “Twitter management and board lied to make their user numbers seem artificially higher, so turned a blind eye to fake/spam accounts”.
Around 400,000 Twitter accounts own the blue tick mark. Government departments, companies, celebrities, journalists and individuals were assigned the authentication badge to distinguish their accounts with fake accounts and those who impersonated an important person or organisation.
But earlier Musk announced that the ticks will be granted to everyone on the basis of paid subscriptions. It was launched recently after much deliberation and delay. It costs $8 per month and $11 for iOS users. It allows the users to cancel or renew the badge anytime they want. The basic eligibility for having the badge is to have a Twitter account which is older than 90 days and a valid phone number linked to the account. Different colours have been assigned to different fragments of people and associations. Canada, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia have Twitter Blue available to them.
The company announced, “Starting today, when you subscribe your account will get access to subscriber-only features including Edit Tweet, 1080p video uploads, reader mode, and a blue checkmark (once your account has been reviewed).” They added, “Soon, subscribers with the blue checkmark will get priority ranking in search, mentions, and replies to help lower the visibility of scams, spam and bots.”
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