Since Elon Musk rolled out the ability for any Twitter user to pay $8 to receive a verified badge, the blue checkmark that comes with a Twitter Blue subscription has become a mark of shame in the eyes of many.
Twitter Blue subscribers have been trolled since the subscription plan's launch, with memes like the popular "this mf paid for Twitter" used by the old legacy verified users and non-verified users alike.
It's gotten so bad for the Twitter users paying $8 per month that the company is looking into maybe allowing Blue subscribers to completely hide the badge.
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According to a screenshot leaked by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Twitter is apparently testing out the ability for users to "show or hide the blue checkmark" in the verification settings for Twitter Blue users.
For some, the decision to roll out such an option might seem confusing. However, unlike much of what Twitter has done since Musk's takeover, it actually makes a bit of sense. And even more so in the context of a recent announcement from the company.
On Thursday, after Twitter announced that Twitter Blue was officially available for users located anywhere in the world, Musk followed up with another piece of news: Legacy verified users on Twitter – the celebrities, artists, and journalists who were deemed "notable" users and had their identification verified by the previous Twitter regime for free – would lose their verified account status starting April 1.
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When Musk's verification plan started rolling out, the main selling point of Twitter Blue seemed to be the verified badge, which allows paid users to digitally rub elbows with the legacy verified users. The paid Blue checkmark and the legacy checkmark are indistinguishable, unless a user tapped on the badge, which would then open a pop-up that denoted what type of verified account it was.
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With mostly just Twitter Blue subscribers left with a checkmark (along with accounts associated with verified organizations), the verification badge will become a "kick me" sign. Those users won't look like possible "notable" individuals if most of the notable accounts are unverified. Instead, it will just be a mark that you paid Elon Musk $8 a month (or $11 per month on mobile.)
So, if you are set on removing the legacy verified badges, as Musk apparently is, the next best thing if you still want people to subscribe to Twitter Blue is to let them hide the badge so they're not paying to be bullied on the platform.
Musk rolled out Twitter Blue fairly quickly after he officially acquired the company last year. Twitter lost around half of its advertisers after Musk took charge – and is still struggling when it comes to ad revenue. The subscription revenue model was meant to help with the losses. However, advertising previously made up around 90 percent of Twitter's $5 billion revenue in 2021. Twitter Blue has only managed to sign up a few hundred thousand users, or a few decimals of a percentage point of Twitter's entire monthly active user base. The company has also rolled out a gold checkmark verified badge for companies, which costs a whopping $1,000 per month.
It's unclear if the removal of legacy verification badges will give Twitter Blue a bump in subscribers, although based on the reaction to the sunsetting of legacy checkmarks, it doesn't seem likely.
One thing that does seem for sure though: Use of the "this mf paid for Twitter" meme is about to go way, way up.
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