Twitter makes Verified worthless for everyone, hopes it will stop trolling of users who pay for Blue Tick

By Sneha SahaStarting April 1, Elon Musk’s Twitter was supposed to remove blue ticks that are given to users free of cost, but that hasn’t happened yet. Instead, Musk is making changes to the way the blue ticks appear next to the profile name. In the latest update, Twitter has changed the message that appears when you click on the blue tick, which now doesn’t clarify who has subscribed to blue membership and who hasn’t.

“On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks. To keep your blue checkmark on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue,” Twitter verified tweeted a couple of days ago. While many celebrities have lashed out at Musk over charging for the blue tick, there are many users who have subscribed to the blue subscription. But, these paid verified users are constantly trolled on the platform. Musk has seemingly taken note of that and changed the messaging when you click on the blue tick displayed next to the profile name.

Earlier, the blue tick clearly differentiated between users who have subscribed to the blue subscription and the ones who got it for free. But with the new change, there’s no way one can identify between paid and free verified accounts. The message now reads, “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.”

Until now, the blue tick was given to notable people – including celebrities, media personalities, and so on. But Musk is changing that now and giving an opportunity to all Twitter users to get a blue tick next to their name but with one condition. They will need to pay $8 per month. In India, Twitter desktop users can get the blue tick for Rs 650 per month, while mobile users will need to pay Rs 900 monthly.

Twitter hasn’t clarified how many users have opted for the blue subscription, but there are users including some media houses as well as global celebrities who are not willing to pay for the verification. Over the weekend, The New York Times lost its blue tick on Twitter after the publishing house said that it won’t pay $8 for the verification. “We aren’t planning to pay the monthly fee for verification of our institutional Twitter accounts,” a NYT spokesperson said earlier this week. And now Musk has removed the blue tick.

So, if you are a legacy blue tick user, you may lose the checkmark very soon unless you decide to subscribe to blue membership.