Social media giant Twitter made good its threat of removing verified blue checkmarks for users on Thursday, April 20, 2023.
Thousands of verified celebrities, politicians, journalists, public figures, and organisations lost the checkmark in an ongoing shake-up by Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, triggering confusion and disappointment at the same time.
On April 19, Twitter Verified notified of the final decision to do away with the checkmarks for users who do not subscribe to the service: "Tomorrow, 4/20, we are removing legacy verified checkmarks. To remain verified on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue."
Users will now need to pay $8 (Sh1,074) per month to keep the checkmark.
High-profile users who have lost their checkmarks include former US President Donald Trump, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey, and Beyonce. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey wasn't spared either.
Heads of State including President William Ruto, Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), and Joe Biden (USA) all have verified grey checkmarks.
News organisations like CNN and BBC World are unverified. KTN News, Citizen TV, K24, Radio Maisha, and Nation Africa have also had their checkmarks withdrawn.
The Standard Digital however has a verified gold checkmark.
In Kenya, key institutions that were previously verified on Twitter such as the ministries of Interior, Health, Foreign Affairs, and Tourism were also unverified at the time of publishing this story.
We found out that Kenyan Opposition leader Raila Odinga, Chief Justice Martha Koome, and Raila Junior had retained the blue checkmarks on their accounts, though it was not clear whether this was because they had paid for the service.
However, other notable public figures suffered a different fate, including former Justice Minister Martha Karua, Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and lawyers Ahmednasir Abdullahi, Donald Kipkorir, and Miguna Miguna.
"It is haram to pay $8 dollars a month to the richest man in the world when the same can feed a family in Kenya for a week. I will not pay for it," Abdullahi tweeted hours after the purge.
His counterpart Miguna would write: "Goodbye verified blue tick. I'm not paying one red cent for the blue tick!"
Notable journalists, both local and international, who have not paid for the service were not spared either.
CNN Journalist Larry Madowo tweeted moments after losing the blue checkmark, saying: "My legacy verified checkmark is gone. Still not paying. This was fun."
Some Kenyan journalists who have since lost their verifications include Linus Kaikai, KTN's Ken Mijungu, Citizen TV's Yvonne Okwara, and Waihiga Mwaura. Activist Boniface Mwangi, who has millions of followers on the platform, also lost his checkmark.
Twitter had about 300,000 verified users under the original blue-check system.
Parody accounts and misinformation
As Musk effects the changes announced last year, there's fear of fake news and misinformation making rounds on the platform, as accounts impersonate public figures and key institutions.
Many users are now worried that Twitter will lose its authenticity and trust as a source of accurate and verified information, especially in the case of breaking news and emergencies. The concern is that anyone can now pay and be verified.
In November last year, Twitter was forced to temporarily pause the launch of the paid-for-blue checkmark, after several people took advantage, impersonating key figures including presidents, brands, and even Musk himself.
One such verified account would purport to be 'Jesus.'
How to get verified
The platform, with over 300 million users has since announced new ways that organisations, public figures, and individuals can get verified.
According to the Twitter information center, you can apply for the subscription service by paying $8 (Sh1,074) a month or $84 (Sh11,263) annually.
"All Twitter Blue features will be available immediately except the blue checkmark, which will appear on eligible profiles after a review to ensure subscribed accounts meet all eligibility criteria," Twitter notes.
Under Musk, the platform also noted it is in the pilot phase of a new service called Twitter Verified Organisations, "which is a service for business entities on Twitter that adds a gold checkmark to official business accounts."
Subscribers of the service will enjoy several features only privy to them such as editing tweets, longer tweets, custom navigation, only seeing half adverts, longer video uploads, and prioritised rankings in searchability on Twitter among others.
According to the new verification system, there are different checkmarks. A blue mark means an account is subscribed or has paid for the legacy checkmark. Gold is for organisations that pay $1,000 a month (Sh134,000) while a grey checkmark represents an official government account or a head of state.
