Twitter’s blue check mark was once a coveted status symbol. Now some users call it “the dreaded sign” or that “smelly license plate.”
Last week, Twitter began removing the verification symbols from the profiles of thousands of celebrities, media personalities and politicians. The shift came as Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, continued to roll out Twitter Blue, a subscription service that offers special features like tweet editing in addition to the blue badge – for $8 per month.
Now that anyone can buy a blue check, many users find the symbol new uncool. The icon makes the owner seem “desperate for validation,” according to the rapper Doja Cat. For others, it means support for Mr. Musk amid his bumpy takeover of the platform. Users who like the symbol enough to pay for it are shouted out by a chorus of prominent users who say verification is no longer worth it.
Can the blue diamond remain desirable now that it has lost its allure of exclusivity?
“The idea that you would pay for status, and that it’s something you’re not granted, seems fundamentally undesirable to people who have status,” said Robyn Caplan, a senior researcher at the Data & Society Research Institute.
Jacob Sartorius, 20, a musician and content creator, said he was thrilled to be awarded a blue check in 2016. “It was an honor. It was sort of a symbol of, wow, something is happening,” he said.
Mr. Sartorius said he would now rather spend $8 on a Subway sandwich than Twitter Blue. “It’s not something that’s cool anymore,” he said.
Twitter users’ self-consciousness when it comes to their blue check marks speaks to the symbol’s evolution from a tool designed to avoid imitation into a fickle marker of cultural relevance.
Twitter introduced verification badges in 2009 during what Dr. Caplan called the “red carpet era” of social media, when companies tried to lure celebrities and brands to their platforms. The badges assured public figures that they would not be impersonated, and the recognition served as an ego boost.
Because so many public figures received badges and the anonymous masses did not, jockeying for verification became something of a blood sport – and the blue diamond a symbol of victory. Guides proliferated online, advising users on how to access the club.
Mr. Musk tried to undermine that two-pronged approach, which he called a “lords & peasants system.” He framed Twitter Blue as a step to democratize the platform.
Waves of blue-check paranoia began sweeping the platform last year when Mr. Musk said he would soon begin removing checkmarks from user profiles. After letting the expected doomsday come and go at the beginning of this month, Mr. Musk on April 20 with the removal of the insignia. (Mr. Musk has long shown an affinity for the frequently used number 420, once dropping it in a tweet that landed him in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission.)
Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment, and an email to Twitter’s communications department was automatically replied with a poop emoji.
Last Thursday’s purge began to change the meaning of the symbol almost within hours. Then it shifted again, when blue checks started showing up again on high-profile accounts over the weekend.
Mr Sartorius said he was annoyed when his blue check mysteriously reappeared because he was concerned his followers would think he paid for Twitter Blue. Checks also appeared on the accounts of LeBron James, Stephen King and Paul Dochney, posting as @dril, all of whom said they would not pay for verification. (Mr Musk said he himself paid for “a few” Twitter Blue accounts, including Mr. James’s.)
Some managed to dump them. Comedian Patton Oswalt said he had gotten rid of his by changing his screen name. Mr. Sartorius said he might do the same. Chrissy Teigen called her blue check a form of “punishment”, and said she eventually got rid of it.
Travis Brown, a software developer who has tracked subscriptions to the site, estimated that between 615,000 and 650,000 accounts currently have Twitter Blue verification, and that as of last Thursday, about 4.8 percent of accounts verified under the previous system are Blue-verified. had verification. He also estimated that about 8,000 accounts verified under the previous system had received Blue verification.
Those who haven’t gotten their verification back are brazenly venturing into a dark future. Food television show host Adam Richman, 48, lost his check on Thursday. He said the badge no longer functioned as an effective means of authentication and he was not interested in wearing it as a status symbol.
“If my nephew, who is 8 years old, can get a blue tick, what’s the point?” he said.
