Elon Musk is bringing back the blue checkmarks on Twitter at the end of this month. Starting Nov. 29, it should again be possible to subscribe to them.
Twitter made the blue checkmark available for a fee earlier this month. But as chaos ensued, the social platform decided to temporarily pause its subscription service.
The blue checkmark did not necessarily mean that Twitter had verified a Twitter user's identity. Instead, the checkmark showed that the user was paying $8 a month for the Twitter Blue subscription.
This made it difficult to tell whether a Twitter account was real or fake. Only when you clicked on the checkmark did it show whether the user had paid for the checkmark or whether Twitter had actually verified the account. Subsequently, numerous fake accounts surfaced, for example of U.S. former presidents Donald Trump and George W. Bush.
All unpaid legacy Blue checkmarks will be removed in a few months
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 16, 2022
When the subscription service is re-released at the end of this month, adjustments have been made. "With the new release, changing someone's verified name will cause the blue checkmark to be lost until Twitter has confirmed that the name meets the terms of service," Musk said.
Musk announced in a tweet on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday that the blue checkmarks of people without a paid subscription will expire "in a few months."