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Some VIP Twitter users woke up Saturday expecting to have lost their coveted blue verification checkmarks in a previously announced purge by Elon Musk. Instead, Twitter seemed to be targeting a single major account publication Musk dislikes and changed the language on his site in a way that obscures why users are being verified.
Twitter had said on April 1 it would “start phasing out” blue checks issued under its old verification system — which emphasized protecting high-profile users at risk of impersonation. To stay verified, Musk said, users would have to pay $8. per month to join the platform’s Twitter Blue subscription service, which is allowed bills to pay for verification since December.
Most blue check holders found this weekend that their seals of approval had not disappeared, but had previously been added with a new label reading: “This account has been verified because it subscribes to Twitter Blue or is an outdated verified account.” The language, which appears when users click the checkmark, makes it unclear whether verified accounts are actually notable individuals or simply users who paid to join Twitter Blue.
But one high-profile account lost its blue check this weekend: the main DailyExpertNews account, which DailyExpertNews previously told it would not pay for verification.
After an account that frequently interacts with Musk posted a meme this weekend about the Times refusing to pay for verification, Musk responded in a tweet saying, “Okay, then we’ll take it off.” Musk then lashed out at the Times — just the latest example of the billionaire slamming journalists or media outlets — in a series of tweet who claimed the outlet’s coverage is boring and “propaganda.”
The weekend moves are just the latest example of Twitter causing confusion and whiplash among users over feature changes — and in this case, not just any users, but many of the most high-profile accounts that have long been a major selling point for the platform. It also shows how Musk often seems to guide platform decisions more by whim than policy.
While the main DailyExpertNews account lost its blue check mark, the other accounts, such as those for art, travel, and books, remained verified. (It’s not clear why the DailyExpertNews doesn’t have a gold checkmark for “organizations,” like accounts for other news outlets, including the Associated Press and the Washington Post.) After the blue checkmark was removed, a DailyExpertNews spokesperson said reiterated to DailyExpertNews that it does not intend to pay for verification.
Twitter, which laid off most of its PR staff last fall, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a separate puzzling move, Twitter’s blue bird logo at the top of the site was replaced Monday with doge, the meme representing the cryptocurrency dogecoin, which Musk has been promoting. The price of dogecoin shot up 20% on Monday.
Musk has threatened to remove “old” blue ticks from users who verified under Twitter’s old system shortly after buying Twitter last fall.
In early November, Twitter launched the ability for people who pay for the Twitter Blue subscription service to receive blue checks. The program was quickly put on hiatus after being plagued by a spate of celebrity and corporate impersonators, and was relaunched in December.
Twitter also rolled out a color-coded verification system with different colored markers for companies and government agencies, but Musk continued to say that individual users would eventually have to pay for blue checks.
In the days leading up to the blue check purge that was not the case, prominent users such as actor William Shatner and anti-bullying activist Monica Lewinksy balked at the idea that, as power users who draw attention to the site, they should pay for a feature that protects them from impersonation.
By obscuring why accounts are verified, the new label could make it easier for people to scam or impersonate high-profile users. Experts in inauthentic behavior have also said it’s not clear that reserving verification for paid users will reduce the number of bots on the site, an issue Musk has occasionally raised over the past year.
Musk, for his part, has previously pitched changes to Twitter’s verification system as a way to “treat everyone equally.”
“There should be no other standard for celebrities,” he said in a tweet last week. The paid feature could also boost revenue, which could help Musk, who has significant debt after buying Twitter for $44 billion.
Musk also said last week that starting April 15, only verified accounts would be featured in users’ “For You” feeds in addition to the accounts they follow.
–Oliver Darcy of DailyExpertNews contributed to this report.