Verified Twitter Users Still Have Blue Check Marks After Proposed Subscription Stipulation
By Taylor Hodgkins on April 8, 2023 at 8:00 PM EDT
The Elon Musk 'era' of Twitter is facing criticism once again.
The social media giant has undergone several changes since Musk took ownership last October. Countless celebrities have called Musk out for his management of 'the bird app,' he has suspended user accounts for impersonation and has inspired massive confusion among verified users over the last few months.
Musk began a campaign to charge Twitter users with a blue check mark next to their name shortly after taking the reigns as Twitter's CEO.
Several celebrities have come out against Musk's plan, including Stephen King, Trevor Noah, and Doja Cat, to name a few. The 27-year-old "Kiss Me More" singer blasted Musk and those users who choose to pay the $8.00 monthly subscription to Twitter Blue.
Musk Announced End Of Legacy Varified Program And Twitter Blue Enforcement For Varified Accounts
Late last month, the official Twitter Verified account announced the company would "begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified check marks." The tweet also informs users that they must subscribe to Twitter Blue to maintain the signature blue verification check mark. (via TheWrap.com)
The policy would be enacted on April 1.
Four days later, however, users have begun to notice no action has been taken to implement this policy.
According to NBC News, many Twitter Blue subscribers have canceled their membership but are still seeing their blue check marks in place. Those disgruntled users expressed irritation with the outlet and described the features they could no longer work with.
Those users are "Subject to dayslong reviews when they want to change their profile picture or display name. Despite still being verified, they no longer have access to an edit button or long-form tweets, which are perks of the subscription," the outlet reported.
What Is Happening Instead?
Instead of the promised changes, users receive a pop-up message when a verified checkmark is clicked on. Still, it does not differentiate between Twitter Blue subscribers or verified legacy accounts. According to The Hill, there had previously been a distinction.
As of this writing, Musk has not explained the changes, and it is unclear whether he will implement more changes in the coming weeks.
Stephen King Blasts Musk Over Twitter Blue Subscription And Musk Fired Back
$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 31, 2022
Back in November, Musk had initially announced a 20.00 Twitter Blue subscription. After a war of words with "Carrie" author Stephen King, he reduced the price to 8.00.
According to our report on the encounter, King tweeted, "$20 a month to keep my blue check? F**k that; they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I'm gone like Enron." He also slammed "the principal" of Musk for charging a fee for previously free features.
Musk responded, "We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter can't rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8.00?" his first tweet read. "I will explain this rationale in a longer form before this is implemented. It's the only way to defeat bots and trolls."
According to a tweet from Matt Binder, Musk allegedly deleted a tweet responding to an inquiry about removing legacy verified check marks.
Elon Musk quickly deleted a tweet saying legacy verified accounts would not lose their checkmarks on April 1 as he previously said, won’t happen for another “few weeks”
however, if they specifically say they won’t pay for Twitter Blue, then Twitter will remove their checkmark pic.twitter.com/HiiWwf30tb
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) April 2, 2023
His screenshot of the exchange shows Musk replying to a tweet from DogeDesigner, where he writes, "We'll give them a few weeks grace unless they tell they won't pay now, in which we'll remove it."
Musk has not addressed the allegedly deleted tweet as of this writing.