In a striking development that only a platform owned by Elon Musk could deliver with such theatrical flair, Twitter officially removed legacy blue checkmarks on Thursday, a move that transformed formerly verified celebrities into ordinary digital peasants, indistinguishable from your cousin Randy who tweets once a month about his fantasy football league.
The blue checkmark, once a glittering symbol of online stature and something approximating credibility, now functions more like an “I paid for this” sticker that comes with a side of existential crisis. Twitter’s newest policy, gleefully dubbed Twitter Blue, asks users to pony up $8 a month to maintain their checkmarks, a price point that apparently many famous people found more offensive than anything their anonymous detractors might tweet at them.
Among those stripped of their illustrious digital flair were Beyoncé, the Pope, and author Stephen King, proving that in the new Twitterverse, no one is truly safe, not even the Queen of pop or God’s earthly representative. Even LeBron James reportedly refused to pay for verification, leaving the platform to decide whether to strip arguably the greatest basketball player of his blue badge or risk offending millions of basketball fans. Naturally, Elon claimed he personally paid for a few subscriptions for William Shatner, James and King, demonstrating that billionaires too can be moved by sarcasm and celebrity standoffishness.
For years, the blue checkmark was handed out by Twitter to public figures and journalists who were confirmed as being who they claimed to be, a system designed to avoid impersonations and fakery but which inevitably turned into a social pecking order more hotly debated than Oscar nominations. With Twitter Blue, anyone willing to part with $8 and a smidgen of dignity can achieve that same shiny status, effectively replacing gatekeeping with pay-to-play theatrics. Critics have pointed out that this move could make it easier for misinformation to spread, which feels almost inevitable given that the platform now allows anyone with a Visa card to appear important.
“This was inevitable,” tweeted film producer and digital Cassandra Franklin Leonard. “It’s no longer about authenticity. It’s about who is willing to pay.”
Those mourning their loss of officialdom took to Twitter to express a mixture of indifference, irritation and outright glee. Some even responded by updating their names to include “Not Verified” as if to say they were far too elite to pay for status. Others posted farewell tributes to their fallen checkmarks, which is how you know we are all taking this just the right amount of seriously.
In the end, the checkmark may have lost its prestige, but Twitter gained precisely what it needed most in this wildly confusing moment in social media history: more people talking about Twitter again.
It seems anyone can be verified now, except perhaps common sense.