White House refuses to pay for its employees’ Twitter Blue verification

The White House joined other US institutions in refusing to pay for the Twitter Blue subscription service. On Friday, White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty informed the staff via email that they would have to pay for the subscription out of their pocket if they wish so, according to Axios.

“It is our understanding that Twitter Blue does not provide person-level verification as a service,” Flaherty said.

“Thus, a blue check mark will now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user. Staff may purchase Twitter Blue on their personal social media accounts using personal funds,” he added.

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However, Axios report noted that the guidance doesn’t apply to government agencies, but there might be a possibility that other agencies and departments would be given similar directives in the future.

White Houseofficials rely on their verified accounts to disseminate information to the public on behalf of the administration. Verification, combined with the designated Twitter profiles, helped maintain the authenticity of those messagesthat were trusted by the people.

Twitter to remove all unpaid blue ticks from April 1

The pushback against the Blue badge subscription comes in response to Twitter planning to shut down its legacy verified programme, removing blue checkmarks from accounts that don’t sign up for its $8 per month Twitter Blue service. The changes take effect from April 1.

Whereas official organisations, such as the White House and some government officials, will continue to have grey check mark verification, Twitter said.

The verified account feature was introduced in 2009 to help users identify the genuine accounts of celebrities, politicians, companies and brands, news organisations and other accounts "of public interest". Twitter didn't previously charge for the service.

However, after Elon Musk took over the company in October 2022, he described the old verification system as “corrupt”.

"Far too many corrupt legacy Blue ‘verification’ checkmarks exist, so no choice but to remove legacy Blue in coming months", he had tweeted in November.

(With inputs from agencies)

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