Amid already ongoing confusion about legacy verified accounts on Twitter, the Twitter Verified account, which used to follow all legacy verified accounts has gone on an unfollowing spree. Meanwhile, Twitter's bird logo is back a few says after it was replaced by the Dogecoin logo.
Twitter was abuzz on Friday as the following of the Twitter Verified dropped to zero after it unfollowed all the legacy verified accounts.
Up until the "mass unfollowing", Twitter Verified was following over 420,000 accounts.
While the mass unfollows have left netizens surprised and legacy verified users further confused, this isn't the only noticeable development. In another update, Elon Musk's profile was updated with an "affiliate badge" recently, along with several organisations, who also opted for the affiliate badge feature for their respective associated accounts.
What is an "affiliate badge"? When was it introduced? How have Twitter users reacted to the mass unfollowing by Twitter Verified? Here's what we know.
Also Read: Twitter Legacy Verified Accounts Still Have Their Blue Ticks, But With A Twist
Musk, News Organisations Get 'Affiliate Badge'
On November 13, 2022, after announcing paid verification through Twitter Blue, Elon Musk shared that Twitter would be introducing a feature that would allow brands and organisations to identify accounts associated with them.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk's profile was recently updated with the 'affiliate badge', which appears right next to the verified checkmark and has the logo of the associated organisation, which in his case is Twitter. "This account is affiliated with Twitter," Elon Musk's affiliate badge read.
Not just Twitter or Elon Musk, but accounts related to other organisations including Time, CBS News, Al Jazeera, and Telegraph also have the affiliate badge now. The accounts with the "affiliate badge" of an organisation will appear in a separate tab, next to the 'Tweets' section. An organisation that is subscribed to "Twitter Verification for Organizations ", can link any number of their affiliated individuals, businesses, and brands to their account.
All the accounts with the "affiliate badge" have the logo of the parent/affiliate organisation next to the golden or blue tick.
On April 11, Elon Musk announced that an advantage of having organizational affiliation is that one can change their name without losing verification on Twitter.
"This is very important for protecting users against sophisticated impersonation scams," Elon Musk said in a tweet.
Is the revocation of legacy blue ticks underway? Twitteratti believe so.
Twitter Verified was following over 420,000 verified accounts earlier, and the latest move, including the rollout of affiliate badges, has raised speculation that the revocation of legacy blue ticks, which was supposed to be done on April 1, might begin soon.
Although blue ticks were not removed from the legacy accounts on April 1 as announced by Musk, their description changed since April 3. Previously, it was easy to distinguish a legacy verified account from a Twitter Blue subscriber. However, clicking on the blue tick on any account now displays the message, "This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account."
(Editor Note: This story has been updated to reflect the latest update on the affiliation badge.)