Last year, Elon Musk’s social network X (formerly known as Twitter) introduced a feature for paid users to hide their blue checkmarks from others after the checks became primarily a paid feature. However, it seems that X is once again changing its stance on this matter. In a recent move, the company has begun sending notifications to users warning that the feature will soon be discontinued.
No Timeline for Discontinuation
As with other decisions taken by X, there is no clear timeline as to when the switch will happen. The only certainty is that the move will add another layer of confusion around what the blue checkmark actually means these days, especially considering the recent changes made by X. Just last week, the company removed a section from its X Premium support page that described how paying users could hide their checkmarks.
A Confusing Saga: The Evolution of Blue Checkmarks
Before Elon Musk’s takeover, a blue check on your handle was the ultimate Twitter humblebrag, conferred by Twitter itself based on the size or impact of your profile on social media or the wider world. This was done to help distinguish accounts as genuine and not impersonations.
However, after Elon took over and turned the checks into a premium paid feature, making the symbol something anyone could buy for a small fee, its value as a status or verification symbol began to dwindle. In other words, not really valuable at all, and maybe even a little embarrassing.
Other Benefits of X Premium
Yet, despite people’s reluctance to admit that they were paying money to a company that had turned into such a mess under its new owner, there were other benefits to the premium tier. These included editing features, the ability to publish longer posts, and extra direct messaging features.
The Ability to Hide Blue Checkmarks: A Double-Edged Sword
Cue the introduction of the ability to hide blue checkmarks. Now those who had been non-proud users are speaking out.
- "Lol noooooooo…. I liked being a X Premium subscriber, but I didn’t like the dumb checkmark. Come on@elonmusk, let me hide that I’m paying for your dumb website." – Haje (@Haje)
- "The company more widely continues to grapple with major trust and safety issues on the platform — not just impersonators but misinformation, harassment, and other abusive content."
A Revenue Driver with Unclear Consequences
When Elon changed the blue checkmark feature into a revenue driver, he undermined the point of it in trying to combat some of those issues. X has made several other moves that have confused what blue checkmarks actually mean when you see them on the site.
- After switching to allowing only paying users to have checkmarks, some people still seemed to be retaining blue checks even when they weren’t paying Elon a penny.
- Later, the company more officially moved to reinstate the blue checkmark for very select top accounts.
- Earlier this month, the social network started handing out blue checkmarks to influential users with more than 2,500 ‘verified’ followers. The company also started offering its Premium subscription to these users and Premium+ subscription to users with more than 5,000 verified followers.
The Pyramid Scheme of Verification
These moves operate on a kind of pyramid scheme, since ‘verified’ becomes a large bucket of paid users, with some that are unpaid, none of which are clearly marked or explained.
