In a tweet shared on Friday, Elon Musk confirmed his plans to get rid of blue checkmarks for “legacy verified” accounts.
When a Twitter user tweeted at Musk to suggest that the verification checkmarks on the platform have “become a joke” now that anyone can get them by subscribing to Twitter Blue, Musk responded and made his plans clear. “Legacy blue checks will be removed soon,” he wrote. “Those are the ones that are truly corrupt.”
Legacy verified accounts refer to users who had their identity verified prior to Musk’s tumultuous takeover of Twitter last year. Many of the legacy verified users include politicians, celebrities, and other public figures of note. It’s unclear what Musk means in referring to these accounts as “corrupt,” but he could just be trying to increase the value of Twitter Blue to existing subscribers.
He initially announced his plans to remove the legacy checkmarks back in December. “In a few months, we will remove all legacy blue checks,” he wrote. “The way in which they were given out was corrupt and nonsensical.” Upon the launch of Twitter Blue, however, many users subscribed so they could pose as notable figures and share misinformation.
In a report from Platformer earlier this week, Musk reportedly complained to his employees in a meeting about the number of impressions he’s getting on his tweets. “This is ridiculous,” Musk told employees in a meeting, according to insiders. “I have more than 100 million followers, and I’m only getting tens of thousands of impressions.”
Two of the remaining principal engineers at Twitter suggested that public interest in his behavior on Twitter has diminished. He was presented with a Google Trends chart that showed search interest in him has fallen since last April and argued there is no bias against him from the algorithm. He reportedly did not take the news well, and told the engineer, “You’re fired.” He’s also allegedly told his employees to track how many times his tweets are recommended to Twitter users.
