By: Nick Gambino
The paid X Blue checkmark (or Twitter Blue if you’re an OG) was introduced as part of the Twitter Blue relaunch last year. Unlike the days of old, the little checkmark isn’t much of a verification badge. For $8 a month you can stick one of these on your profile, buying “legitimacy” for a few bucks.
This pay-to-look-cool model has been met with a lot of criticism. You used to be able to quickly note who on Twitter was a notable personality at a glance. Now it’s a post-apocalyptic wasteland of useless blue checks. Many celebrities or significant accounts are still checkmark-less and those sporting only a few followers and who contribute little to the conversation are…checkmark-ful.
Beyond confusing everything, a blue checkmark might as well be a scarlet letter. People are quick to rush to the comments to roast those who coughed up the $8 in an effort to look legit. Memes abound and it’s brutal. It seems the people running X (Elon Musk) are sympathetic to the problem they created for these subscribers.
The company now lets X Blue subscribers hide the checkmark. In effect, this gets rid of the public verification aspect of the mark but still allows access to the other features afforded by the subscription – edit posts, see fewer ads, longer character limits, etc.
“As a subscriber, you can choose to hide your checkmark on your account,” the updated X Blue help center page reads. “The checkmark will be hidden on your profile and posts. The checkmark may still appear in some places and some features could still reveal you have an active subscription.”
This is yet another sign of how much Twitter has changed not only in name but in basic functionality and service. While it’s always been a cesspool of insanity, the social media platform was simple and easy to navigate. With constant changes that feel like destruction on a whim, the service is morphing into something else entirely.
The thing is, that’s Musk’s intention. He wants to turn it into an everything-everywhere app and steer away from its simple SMS-based origins.
