Twitter's subscription programme continued to baffle people when on April 1, legacy verified accounts did not lose their blue ticks as had been announced by Twitter in March. The Twitter Blue subscription programme has been one of the most contentious and talked about decisions since Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter in 2022.
While the blue ticks for legacy accounts remain, the description for them has changed. Earlier, one could tell apart a legacy verified account from one that was subscribed to Twitter Blue. But as of Monday, clicking on the blue tick on any account shows the message, "This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account."
Last week, Musk announced that Twitter will be doing away with legacy verified badges starting from April 1. Adding to the list of features behind the paywall, Musk also announced that only Twitter Blue subscribers will be eligible for participating in Twitter polls and getting featured on 'For You' tab, from April 15. However, two days past the deadline, the legacy blue checks remain.
Musk's subscription programme has been under criticism from day one, so much so that renowned author Stephen King had compared Musk to Tom Sawyer, the protagonist of Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' saying, "Musk makes me think of Tom Sawyer, who is given the job of whitewashing a fence as punishment. Tom cons his friends into doing the chore for him, and getting them to pay for the privilege. That's what Musk wants to do with Twitter. No, no, no."
At first, the subscription was priced at $20 per month. The sum was brought down to $8 when users said they would not pay such a high sum for verification. Twitter blue costs $8 per month for the web and $11 per month for in-app on iOS.
Here's how Twitter users have reacted to the legacy blue ticks not being revoked:
How did Twitter react?
Twitter users came up with memes and sarcastic tweets to mock Musk for not standing by the deadline he himself announced as the last day for legacy verified badges.
Some legacy verified users had geared up, on the eve of the deadline, to bid adieu to their blue ticks which never went away.
Many users were convinced that the entire matter was, in fact, an April fool plan as the deadline coincided with April 1.
Won't budge in
Many Twitter users pointed out that Musk's Twitter Blue subscription was flawed because it makes identifying notable accounts difficult. On social media, the blue tick mark was a universal symbol for identifying legitimate accounts of celebrities, organizations, public personalities, authors and journalists, among others. However, with everyone purchasing a blue tick, determining which account is legitimate could become difficult.
Therefore, many organisations, including the White House, The New York Times, Washington Post and celebrities, like Lebron James, refused to pay for Twitter Blue. According to an Axios report, the White House will not pay to have its staff’s official Twitter profiles verified. “It is our understanding that Twitter Blue does not provide person-level verification as a service. Thus, a blue check mark will now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user,” White House director of digital strategy Rob Flaherty told staffers in an email sent Friday afternoon, according to the publication.
Basketball player, LeBron James also tweeted saying that he will not be paying for his blue tick on Twitter.
CNN's senior reporter Oliver Darcy shared a thread on Twitter, enumerating the media organisations who have refused to pay for the subscription for their own Twitter handles as well as their staff. These include the New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Los Angeles Times, POLITICO and Vox media. CNN and The New York Times, however, added that they will reimburse the subscription charges to reporters who require it for important reporting or news gathering.
While the other organisations named in the list still have the gold tick that is meant for official organisations, the tick was removed The New York Times' official handle with over 55 million followers. A Twitter user told Musk on Twitter through a meme that The New York Times said they won't be paying for Twitter Blue. To this, Musk replied, "we’ll take it off then".
Musk also criticised The New York Times saying it peddled propaganda. "The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting."
Something did change
As the legacy blue ticks still remain, except that of New York Times, there was a new development pointed out by some users regarding the verification badge.
Users pointed out that previously, clicking on blue verified ticks would reveal whether the accounts were legacy blue ticks or Twitter Blue subscribers. However, Twitter has changed the front-end description of the blue ticks. All blue ticks, whether legacy or subscribed, now indicate that they are either legacy verified or subscribed to Twitter blue.
Many Twitter users poked fun at Musk saying this was a desperate step to avoid embarrassment over the lukewarm response to Twitter Blue.
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