Twitter falls into chaos after removing the old blue tick

Twitter users woke up to even more chaos on April 21 after the platform began purging old unpaid blue-tick accounts. From celebrities, public figures, journalists, government organizations, ... anyone who had not signed up for Twitter Blue for $8 a month was missing.

Twitter has begun removing the blue ticks from previously verified accounts that have not yet signed up for Twitter Blue. (Photo: insidesport)

According to CNN , a number of news organizations have lost their gold, another symbol that the Twitter team developed in the past few months. This suggests that they also refuse to pay $1,000/month to keep the gold.

Several prominent Twitter users, including LeBron James, William Shatner, and Stephen King, refused to pay, prompting Elon Musk to step in. Apparently sensing trouble would arise if these accounts were not verified, Musk announced that he would pay out of his own pocket to keep the blue ticks on James, Shatner, and King's pages.

“My Twitter account says I signed up for Twitter Blue. I didn’t. It also says I gave my phone number, which I didn’t,” King tweeted. In response, Elon wrote, “Respectfully welcome,” with a prayer emoji.

While some of the issues stemming from the removal of the blue checkmark should be resolved in the coming days, the change makes it harder for users to determine the authenticity of an account and hurts Twitter’s role as a news hub. The blue checkmark is no longer a sign that an account owner has been verified by Twitter. Instead, it simply reflects the fact that they paid for it.

Previous tests have led to similar chaos, forcing Twitter to pause the program’s rollout multiple times. However, the platform ultimately moved forward with the plan in hopes of boosting Twitter Blue revenue to offset declining ad revenue.

According to CNN , after the green light disappeared on April 20, the official Twitter account of New York City had to tweet in the afternoon: "This is the real Twitter account representing the New York City government." A moment later, another Twitter account using the same profile picture commented under the tweet: "Not true. This is the real Twitter account representing and operated by the New York City government."

By the morning of April 21, the city’s account was re-authenticated with a gray checkmark, indicating “government or multilateral organization account.” The same thing happened to Pope Francis, who went missing on April 20.

Twitter also removed the “government-sponsored journalism” label from accounts belonging to CBC and NPR (Canada). NPR announced its withdrawal from Twitter because the label misled the newspaper’s independence. The “state-affiliated journalism” labels from Xinhua (China) and RT (Russia) also disappeared.

According to NPR, Musk removed all press labels on the platform after a suggestion from author Walter Isaacson, who is writing his biography.

(According to CNN)

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