Some verified Twitter users who received their blue checkmark through a verification program will soon see them done away with, according to a tweet from the social media platform.
Twitter Verified said Thursday the platform “will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks” come April 1.
The social media platform would give blue verification badges to the accounts of “authentic, notable and active” users who fall under various categories like government, news, brands, entertainment, sports and activists at no charge. If they wish to retain their blue checkmarks, those individuals will have to switch to Twitter Blue, according to the tweet.
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That verification subscription service became accessible to users around the world as of Thursday, according to another tweet. With Twitter Blue, subscribers can choose either an annual plan that equates to $7 per month or a monthly plan that charges $8 per month, according to the company.Â
Organizations can get verification through Twitter’s Verified Organizations program, Twitter Verified said.Â
That program, for a monthly payment of $1,000, offers gold checkmarks and other features to companies and nonprofits, while governments get gray checkmarks, according to the company. Affiliates of such organizations can get verification through the program as well for an additional fee per affiliate.
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“Any individual person’s Twitter account affiliated with a verified organization is automatically verified,” Twitter CEO Elon Musk said in a recent tweet.Â
Notably, the date Twitter said the removals will start coincides with April Fools’ Day.
Musk, who also heads Tesla and SpaceX, has expressed plans to get rid of legacy blue checkmarks on multiple occasions in the past, including in November, not long after he acquired Twitter, December and February.
“In a few months, we will remove all legacy blue checks,” he tweeted in mid-December. “The way in which they were given out was corrupt and nonsensical.”
Musk’s acquisition of Twitter was completed in late October after a lengthy legal battle between him and Twitter and roughly six months after he first made the purchase offer.
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The platform itself has seen multiple changes in the time since then. Musk has also voiced changes he wants to implement in the future, like making the platform’s code for tweet recommendations open sourced and giving text message two-factor authentication to only Twitter Blue users.
FOX Business reached out to Twitter for comment.
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