Elon Musk made Payments to famous personalities like Stephen King and LeBron James, which became a cause of dissatisfaction among critics.
Elon Musk’s platform, formerly Twitter, has reportedly discontinued the option for users to hide their blue checkmarks. This change will affect both non-paying and paying premium users. The app has started informing users about this.
In a post shared by app developer Neema Owji, a screenshot included a message from the platform.
The app notified users that the ‘hide your premium checkmark’ feature will soon be discontinued.
BREAKING: #X seems to be removing the ability to hide the verification checkmark! pic.twitter.com/1Kn2OU4puj
— Nima Owji (@nima_owji) April 11, 2024
At the beginning of this month, X began adding blue checkmarks to the accounts of ‘influential’ users, who have at least 2,500 followers paying for premium membership. Meanwhile, more than 5,000 accounts have received complimentary premium plus memberships.
based on all the confused tweets i’m seeing, it looks like Twitter / X is starting to really ramp up the roll out of this now
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) April 3, 2024
if you suddenly have a blue checkmark even though you’re not paying for one, this is why: pic.twitter.com/T1XaBEeGgn
X Blue Checkmarks What Are They and Why They’re Important
Blue checkmarks on X: What are they and why are they important? Previously, when X was Twitter and not under Musk’s ownership, the platform’s verified badge was typically applied to well-known personalities, politicians, journalists, and others in the public eye. Immediately after the billionaire’s takeover, the platform launched its first paid verification service. This meant that anyone could obtain verification along with purchasing a premium subscription. Later, the company began removing checkmarks from those X users who refused to pay for them.
Elon Musk personally intervened to push this onto people like Stephen King and LeBron James, although ultimately, it was added to many accounts with more than a million followers (including several verified accounts whose owners had died or otherwise ceased) for this request).
Now, verified checkmarks are appearing on many influential X accounts, with tens or hundreds of thousands of existing followers (which may be due to the number of verified followers surpassing the benchmark). Once again, checks are being applied or will be applied, whether they like it or not. Musk suggested that this change was for the better. However, some of his critics (including previously verified users) were less pleased with the blue badge appearing on their accounts, as it implied membership payment was not made by others.