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Twitter, started by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, aimed to bring out a platform for short messaging and its big impact. Since its launch, the messaging platform has grabbed people’s attention across the world. After being behind the lowlight for some years it’s popular again. All thanks to the blue tick controversies followed by some policies on Twitter.
Let’s go through why Blue Tick led to some controversies and who came in its shadow.
Authentic Twitter Accounts
Twitter verification was a system introduced in June 2009. It aimed to help people distinguish authentic Twitter accounts from parodies and imposters. Following criticism from several Hollywood figures for having false accounts operated by imposters, Twitter developed Blue Tick.
In 2016, when the volume of verified accounts was reaching beyond their means to cope, the company started limiting whom to approach for verification of the accounts. However, these accounts verified by the previous system on Twitter will be known as “Legacy Accounts.”
Until last year, Twitter displayed blue ticks against those Twitter users, which the company ensured was owned by the ones who claimed to be. Twitter also launched an additional grey/gold checkmark that can be used by businesses and accounts related to governments.
Since December, people with Twitter subscriptions may also have a blue tick (a verified mark) on their accounts.
Controversies Around “ Twitter Blue Tick”
Over years a blue tick has been a target for many controversies and still is. However, for some years, Twitter Blue Tick was put on hold. It was in May 2021 that Twitter relaunched its service of verifying influential Twitter users.
In the last quarter of 2022, when Elon Musk acquired Twitter, a new policy of paid subscriptions on Twitter Blue got highlighted. Later, it was reported that the legacy Twitter accounts might lose verification status within 90 days if they did not apply for a subscription. The new verification system was rolled out on November 9, 2022, the day after the US elections.
Twitter's announcement on removing legacy blue ticks from 1 April 2023 went viral on March 2023. Following this, On 2 April 2023, popular news daily The New York Times lost its blue tick. Last week, as per Hindustan Times, Twitter withdrew the verification mark from almost all accounts that didn't subscribe to the platform. It also included many Bollywood celebs like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, and others. Twitter blue tick retained only those who paid the subscription fee of 8 USD per month. As per Business Today, Many high profiled accounts verification badges have returned to their profiles.
There are lots of criticism of Twitter’s decision throughout social media as some have stated that the essence of verification can get lost if anyone can subscribe to get verified. There have been a lot of blunders in the application itself following the implementation of the decision. Blue Tick has disappeared and reappeared for many users. Although, for many users subscriptions got paid from the company's end.
While Blue Tick has lost its authenticity many have raised many why’s on the platform itself.
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