It’s the end of an era on Twitter.
Many users said Thursday they had lost their verified blue check marks, posting screenshots of their profiles sans verification.
Accounts with verified blue check marks had been awarded the badges by the company’s previous leadership to identify accounts belonging to public organizations and high-profile users. The platform had initially said it would wind down the system on April 1. But the date passed and nothing happened. Then, last week, CEO Elon Musk announced a new date of April 20.
As of early Thursday afternoon, celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Kim Kardashian had lost their check marks. Prominent TV personalities such as CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow lost theirs, as well. Public figures relating to all sectors of society, from Bill Gates to Pope Francis, also lost their checks.
Congressional representatives appear to still have the gray government check mark on their official accounts, while some — such as Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., Brian Mast, R-Fla., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. — have lost verification on their personal accounts. Others, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., still have the blue checks on their personal accounts.
As the removal process was underway Thursday, some users reported confusing glitches — they saw their blue check marks disappear, then reappear, only to disappear once again.
But most users whose check marks were removed were ready to say goodbye.
Actor Halle Berry posted a meme to commemorate the loss of her check mark.
“#BlueCheckMark,” “Twitter Blue” and “Verified” trended on the platform in the U.S., with new tweets cropping up nearly every minute.
Twitter now describes verified accounts as “verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.” But as some legacy verified profiles continue to hold on to their check marks, the new language has prompted speculation that some celebrities have paid…
Read the full article here
