Bye Bye, Blue Check-Marks

Twitter is going to look a lot less blue starting April 1. The social network’s leadership team just announced that non-paying individual users with accounts boasting blue check-marks will have until the end of this month before the verification symbol, for years a signature marker of status and influence on the platform, is revoked. 

Why it matters: The initiative is the Elon Musk regime’s latest push to increase revenue and make Twitter less “corrupt,” a mission the billionaire has held since he acquired the platform last year for a modest $44 billion. The only accounts who will be passed over by the mass blue check eradication will be those who are subscribed to Twitter Blue, which launched worldwide last week and costs eight dollars a month online or 11 dollars in-app in the U.S. “Far too many corrupt legacy Blue ‘verification’ checkmarks exist, so no choice but to remove legacy Blue in coming months,” Musk tweeted back in November.

But what about…? Brands, companies and government officials will still be able to distinguish their accounts from impersonators and other plebeians with special gold and gray check-marks. These measures were implemented late last year after a torrent of individuals took advantage of the early Twitter Blue setup, purchasing official blue check-marks for imposter and parody accounts. Gone, but not forgotten, is the fake Eli Lilly Twitter account with a purchased blue check-mark that succeeded in convincing the public that “insulin is free now,” tanking the pharmaceutical company’s stock value.