White House Refuses To Pay For Twitter Verification

The White House won’t pay to have its staff’s official Twitter accounts verified, according to an email distributed to staffers and obtained by Axios.

“It is our understanding that Twitter Blue does not provide person-level verification as a service. Thus, a blue check mark will now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user,” said White House director of digital strategy, Rob Flaherty in the Friday afternoon email which was sent internally to staffers.

The rule doesn’t necessarily apply to government agencies, however a source familiar with the White House’s plans told Axios that it may send guidance to some agencies and departments in the future.

The move comes after Twitter owner Elon Musk announced that the company would begin removing legacy verified check marks beginning April 1. In order to don a blue check, users will need to pay $8 per month.

More via Axios;

• Official organizations, such as the White House and some government officials, will continue to be verified with a grey check mark, Twitter said. Some White House officials, like the President and Vice President, will likely continue to be verified with a grey checkmark, but an administration source said it’s unclear at this time exactly which officials will retain grey checks.
• In his email, Flaherty noted that per Twitter’s updated policies, Twitter will no longer be able to guarantee verification for federal agency accounts that do not meet its new eligibility requirements.
• Companies and businesses that wish to pay for verification on the enterprise level can do so on behalf of their official accounts and some employees. Those companies will be charged $1000 monthly and will be designated with a gold check mark.

As for the White House itself, it says it won’t pay to be verified as an organization, and it won’t reimburse staff who purchase Twitter Blue on their personal social media accounts.

“Twitter’s enterprise service, Verification for Organization, does appear to provide organization-association verification. There are ongoing trials for the program that we are monitoring, but we will not enroll in it,” wrote Flaherty.

“Staff may purchase Twitter Blue on their personal social media accounts using personal funds.”

Also not paying? CNN, the NY Times and the LA Times.