On Thursday, Elon Musk’s Twitter started removing blue verification checkmarks from individuals who had not subscribed to its service. The checks started to vanish from the accounts of journalists, professors, and famous people.
Even some of the most well-known and popular users of the social network, such as Kim Kardashian, Beyonce, Bill Gates, Pope Francis, former president Donald Trump, and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, saw their blue checks disappear.
various government organisations also lost their blue checks, which weren’t immediately replaced by the grey checks Twitter has designated for government accounts, such as the main US Citizenship and Immigration Services account and accounts for various state Customs and Border Patrol offices.
Blue checks on some accounts vanished and reappeared during the initial deployment of the modification, which seemed to have some issues. Other prominent legacy verified accounts did not initially appear to have lost their cheques.
The modification, together with its perplexing implementation, raises the possibility of impersonating prominent users and casts doubt on the accuracy of the platform’s information.
The government body tweeted on Thursday, “Though we have lost our checkmark, this is the official USCIS twitter account.” Please be cautious about fake accounts.
The action might also deter some famous users from using the website because they run the danger of being copied online. Some users started tweeting that they intended to abandon the site as soon as old blue checks vanished.
Twitter had earlier declared that on April 1, it will “begin winding down” blue checks given under its former verification system, which placed an emphasis on defending prominent users at risk of impersonation. Musk said users will need to subscribe to the platform’s Twitter Blue subscription service, which has allowed accounts to pay for verification since December, for $8 per month in order to stay verified.
Instead, Twitter de-verified one account from The New York Times, which Musk has frequently criticised, and modified the language on its website to make it unclear why users are verified.
The “final date for removing legacy Blue checks is 4/20,” tweeted Musk last week, a date that has special resonance for the multibillionaire businessman given its significance to marijuana fans.
The choice to proceed with the shift is only the most recent instance of Musk’s Twitter upending the experience for users. And in this case, not just any users, but many of the most well-known accounts, which have long been a significant selling point for the network.
Popular users who draw attention to the website, such as actor William Shatner and anti-bullying campaigner Monica Lewinsky, have previously resisted the concept that they should be required to pay for a feature that protects them from impersonation. Lewinsky hinted in a tweet on Thursday that she would leave the platform after the change before the tick marks vanished.
For his part, Musk has in the past advocated for modifications to Twitter’s authentication process as a means of “treating everyone equally.”
In a previous tweet, he stated that celebrities shouldn’t be held to a different standard. The additional cash from the paid service could benefit Musk, who owes a large debt after purchasing Twitter for $44 billion.
Musk has regularly lamented the prevalence of bots on the site and has proposed that making users pay for verification could help remove spam and fraudulent accounts. The approach is unlikely to discourage criminal actors, who might just as easily pay to be confirmed, according to specialists in online inauthentic behaviour.
According to Samuel Woolley, assistant professor at the University of Texas School of Information and author of the book “Bots,” “In fact, this is turning Twitter into a pay-for-play system, and we know that propagandists, people working to spread disinformation and other forms of manipulation via Twitter, are very much willing and able to finance their operations.”
The Russian and Chinese governments, as well as extreme groups, are among the most resourceful propagandists that social media corporations are concerned about, he claimed.
