On April Fool’s Day, Twitter plans to begin removing legacy blue checkmarks from the platform. This has been expected for several months, with Elon Musk tweeting in December that the checks would be removed “in a few months.” Musk criticized the way in which the checks were distributed, calling it “corrupt and nonsensical.”
Legacy blue checkmark holders have been receiving a pop-up message when they click on their checkmark, which reads “This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable.” Before Musk acquired Twitter, checkmarks were used to verify active, authentic, and notable individuals and entities. At that time, verified checkmarks were free of charge.
Today, Twitter users can purchase a blue checkmark through the Twitter Blue subscription model for $8 per month. Sign-ups via iOS and Android will cost $11 per month due to app store costs. Other checkmark colors and badges are available for purchase to indicate whether an account is a business or government, for example. Twitter says that purchasing a checkmark gives users access to subscriber-only features like fewer ads on their timeline, prioritized ranking in conversations, bookmark folders, and the ability to craft long, edit, and undo tweets.
Twitter has also announced the global availability of the Blue subscription within hours of the news about the removal of legacy blue checkmarks.