The day has come: old twitter verified have disappeared. Elon Musk, for a few days, had already anticipated that all those who got the blue badge from him prior to his arrival —as director of the social network— would have to pay to maintain verification. The company complied with the warning and, as of today, has stopped displaying the emblem on such profiles.
Now, this movement does not cause any surprise. Even before Elon Musk’s announcement, it was a fact that the days of verified old ones were numbered. Twitter, since the mogul took full control, is promoting the Twitter Blue subscription, which includes, among other “benefits”, the blue badge. Due to your urgent need to generate income, any additional dollars you can pocket will be welcome.
According to a report from The Washington Post, removing the old Twitter verified was not going to be an easy process. And it is that, apparently, it had to be removed from each account manually. We don’t know if the employees created a solution to remove them efficiently, or if they had to go one by one.
In the past, verifying a Twitter account was a feature longed for by many people, but only some profiles could boast. It was necessary to go through a manual approval process, in which Twitter verified certain personal data of the applicant. Once admitted, they received the blue verification.
Now, however, just pay Twitter Blue to display your emblem. The company hadn’t gotten rid of the old verified ones because the revamped service had, until recently, not yet been rolled out globally. So you couldn’t retire a feature without first offering them an alternative—open the wallet—to keep it.
Account verification isn’t the only proposition that’s now only limited to Twitter Blue subscribers. In fact, it does not compare with the recently removed one for the rest of the users. During March, Twitter turned text message two-factor authentication into a paid feature. It was the first time, and hopefully the last, that such an important security feature became exclusive.
So, you already know. If you were part of the select group of users with the old verification, and you want to keep it, you will have to pay for Twitter Blue…
