Twitter has chosen April 1, otherwise known as April 1, to begin removing deprecated blue ticks from the platform.
Despite the importance of the day Twitter chose, it’s been months of waiting for obsolete checkmarks to be removed. Musk tweeted in December that the company would remove those checks “in a few months’ time” because “the way they were issued was corrupt and nonsensical”.
Since then, holders of an obsolete blue checkmark have seen a pop-up when they click their checkmark that reads, “This is an obsolete verified account. It may or may not be remarkable.”
Before Musk acquired the company, Twitter used checkmarks to verify individuals and entities as active, authentic, and notable accounts of interest. Verified check marks were handed out for free.
Today, Twitter users can purchase a blue check through the Twitter Blue subscription model for $8 per month (iOS and Android subscriptions cost $11 per month due to app store fees). Other checkmark colors and badges are also available to indicate whether an account is, for example, a company or a government.
Twitter says purchasing a tick gives users access to subscribers-only features such as fewer ads on their timeline, priority ranking in conversations, bookmark folders, and the ability to create long tweets, edit tweets, and undo tweets.
The news comes within hours of Twitter also confirming the availability of the Blue subscription worldwide.
Twitter did not respond to businessroundups.org’s request for more information about how many users have already signed up for Twitter Blue.
