Search
06 Sept 2025
Search
06 Sept 2025
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
Twitter has failed to take legacy blue checkmarks off the social media platform after it committed to remove them on April 1.
The business, led by billionaire owner Elon Musk, has also confused many people by making older verified users indistinguishable from those who have paid for the checkmark.
It comes after Mr Musk said last month that legacy verified Twitter users would see their blue ticks removed from the service unless they paid a monthly fee of 8 US dollars (£6.40) to its Twitter Blue subscription operation.
Organisations would have to pay 1,000 dollars (£810) a month to receive a gold verification tick.
Oh ok, we’ll take it off then
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023
As a result, thousands of the platform’s high-profile users were braced to lose the ticks, which can help verify their identity and distinguish them from impostors.
But the legacy blue ticks have remained in place despite the expected removal on April 1.
Twitter has however removed the blue tick from the main account of the New York Times, the news organisation which has particularly angered Mr Musk. The newspaper said it would not pay for verification.
“We aren’t planning to pay the monthly fee for checkmark status for our institutional Twitter accounts,” the publication said in a statement on Sunday.
“We also will not reimburse reporters for Twitter Blue for personal accounts, except in rare instances where this status would be essential for reporting purposes.”
In response, Mr Musk said he would therefore remove the checkmark.
The Washington Post reported last week that efforts to remove legacy blue ticks could take a long time due to significant manual elements in the process.
Meanwhile, the social media platform has made it harder to distinguish between legacy checkmarks and those which have been paid for.
Some legacy verified Twitter accounts now have a description which reads: “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.”
Previously, these accounts had messages which read: “This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable.”
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
