Explained | Twitter yanks blue ticks but there's still a way to see if an account is real

Elon Musk’s Twitter finally did what it had decided to do over two weeks ago;remove its blue checks from verified accounts. This has left many confused over which accounts of celebrities, lawmakers, and so on, are real and which are not. The move which was announced weeks ago finally took place on Thursday (April 20).

What does the blue tick mean now?

Previously, Twitter’s blue tick had been given to celebrities, influencers, journalists and other people who fit a certain criterion and followed rules made by the social media platform which were described on the company’s website as “active, notable, and authentic of public interest”.

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The blue tick, which was given to a select group of users- both individual and business accounts- would gain significance and credibility from the millions of others on the microblogging platform.

The company introduced the blue check mark system in 2009, in order to help users identify genuine accounts as opposed to impostors or parody accounts. However, last month, Twitter announced that it would be shutting down its ‘legacy verified programme’ on April 1 but continued for nearly 20 days after.

As of now, the blue checkmark does not mean that the account belongs to someone who they claim to be but that the account has an active subscription to Twitter Blue and meets another set of criteria by Musk’s Twitter.

What is Twitter Blue?

Twitter Blue is a paid subscription that adds a blue checkmark to a user’s account and offers other features like the ability to edit a tweet, upload 1080p videos, bookmark folders, undo tweets and more. In the United States, it costs around $8 a month on the web and $11 per month through the in-app payment on iOS and Android.

What are these criteria?

“Only accounts actively subscribed to Twitter Blue are eligible to receive the blue checkmark. Our team uses an eligibility criteria on when the checkmark is given to ensure we maintain the integrity of the platform,” the company has stated on their website.

This includes having a display name and profile photo which has been active in the past 30 days and other than 30 days upon subscription and a confirmed phone number.

Additionally, a user’s account should not have made recent changes to its profile photo, display name, or username and their “account must have no signs of being misleading or deceptive” or signs of engaging in platform manipulation and spam”.

Who is real and who is not?

Some might agree that the blue sticker next to a person’s name has lost its appeal because anybody may buy one and display it on their profile. However, people cannot deny that it was useful and served its purpose of identifying real accounts from fake or parody ones. While Twitter has set guidelines in place for these accounts the problem may continue to persist.

Therefore, the users might have to go one more step which includes cross-referencing the accounts against other websites. For example, most celebrities or organisations post their Twitter handles on other social media platforms. Additionally, most organisations post their social media handles ontheirwebsites through which one can make sure that the account they are following is real.

What about media and government accounts?

Earlier this month, Twitter also announced that it will make its ‘Verification for Organisations’ service available across the world. The feature will allow organisations and their affiliates to differentiate themselves on Twitter which is reportedly not different from the Twitter Blue service except it is for businesses rather than individuals.

The subscription will cost $1,000 per month (plus tax) and $50 per month (plus tax) for each additional affiliate sub-account. However, government accounts and agencies or heads of government such as the US President Joe Biden or Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have grey ticks that note their connection with government agencies.

However, this is not extended to every politician like the member of the Congress and recently disqualified Member of Parliament, Rahul Gandhi, who was among those who lost their blue tick on Twitter, on Thursday, at the time of reporting this story. Meanwhile, some media accounts have been given yellow ticks but it is always better to cross-reference those without one from their website.

Musk ‘personally’ pays for certain accounts

Hundreds of celebrities, lawmakers, politicians, and prominent individuals and organisations lost the verification badge. However, few names like basketball star LeBron James and author Stephen King were able to retain their verified accounts.

American author Stephen King had also taken to the microblogging platform and wrote, “My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven't. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t.”

It was not until much later that they were informed that the CEO of Twitter, Musk said that he is “personally paying” for the Twitter Blue subscriptions of some celebrities to keep their checkmark.

In a separate tweet, the Twitter chief said, “I’m paying for a few personally,” adding, “Just Shatner, LeBron and King,” referring to William Shatner from Star Trek, who had previously complained about Twitter forcing him to pay to retain his blue checkmark.

(With inputs from agencies)

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