If your Twitter profile page currently displays a blue checkmark and you’re not planning to subscribe to Twitter Blue, expect to lose the mark before too long.
Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, said on Monday that “all legacy blue checks” will be removed “in a few months,” adding that the way they were given out was “corrupt and nonsensical.”
The blue badge is supposed to act as a mark of authenticity and is currently attached to the accounts of prominent people as defined by Twitter’s old guard.
But from now on, a blue mark will be given to anyone subscribing to Twitter Blue, Twitter’s premium tier that offers some extra features over non-Blue Twitter.
Signups for Twitter Blue relaunched on Monday. The tier costs $8 a month for signups made via the web, and $11 a month via an iPhone or iPad — Twitter’s way of dealing with Apple taking a 30% cut of in-app purchases made via an iOS device. Android users can join Blue via the web.
Twitter explains the new approach to blue checkmarks in a post on its website.
It says that a blue checkmark used to be attached to “active, notable, and authentic accounts of public interest that Twitter had independently verified based on certain requirements.” But going forward, only accounts that sign up to Twitter Blue will be eligible to receive the blue checkmark — once the user has been verified.
To subscribe, the account must have been active in the previous 30 days. To receive or retain the blue mark, the account must show a display name and profile photo, and have a confirmed phone number.
Twitter says the account must have “no recent changes to your profile photo, display name, or username,” and show no signs of being “misleading or deceptive” or of “engaging in platform manipulation and spam.”
After taking out of a subscription, the checkmark will appear once Twitter’s team has reviewed the account details to confirm that it complies with the platform’s terms of use.
It adds that any changes to an account’s profile photo, display name, or username will result in a temporary loss of the blue checkmark until the account can be validated.
In a further revamp of its verification system, company accounts on Twitter will receive a gold check mark, while government accounts will receive a gray one.
In other Twitter news, Musk recently suggested that the limit for tweets is set to become 4,000 characters, a huge increase on the current limit of 280 characters.
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