Twitter removes legacy verification check marks

The decision to remove legacy blue checkmarks has been in the works since Elon Musk took over the company in October last year. Musk has criticized the previous verification system as “corrupt and nonsensical” and has been pushing for a new paid verification system.

Under the new system, organizations will receive a gold checkmark, individuals will get a blue checkmark, and governments will be noted with a gray check. Twitter Blue was initially launched in December 2022, with prices set at $11/month for iOS sign-ups and $8/month for web sign-ups.

However, the initial launch led to impersonations of major brands and celebrities, prompting Twitter to roll back the service and relaunch it a month later with manual authentication for accounts receiving checkmarks.

To be eligible for a blue checkmark under the new system, users must actively subscribe to Twitter Blue and meet certain criteria, such as having no recent changes to their profile photo, display name, or username (@handle), and showing no signs of being misleading or deceptive…