Twitter Removes Blue Checkmark from Taliban Officials’ Accounts
By Movieguide® Contributor
As of Tuesday, Twitter appeared to remove the blue checkmarks from accounts run by Taliban officials who reportedly paid the $8-per-month subscription fee for Twitter Blue.
On Monday, the BBC news service reported on the Taliban officials’ verified statuses on the social media platform.
However, the following day, the Twitter account pages for the Taliban’s department for “access to information” leader Hedayatullah Hedayat and top media watchdog at the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture Abdul Haq Hammad no longer showed blue checks next to their handles.
It is currently unclear what caused the removal of checkmarks.
Previously, Twitter provided “verified” blue checkmarks to “active, notable and authentic accounts of public interest.”
However, since Elon Musk purchased the company, he wanted to find an alternative to the “corrupt legacy Blue ‘verification’ checkmarks,” as Movieguide® previously reported.
The Twitter Blue verification system outlined in December would require users to pay each month for their checkmarks.
According to Twitter, this system provides “priority ranking in search, mentions, and replies to help lower the visibility of scams, spam and bots.”
Additionally, a checkmark signifies that “the account has an active subscription to the new Twitter Blue subscription service and has met our eligibility criteria or the account was previously verified under the legacy verification criteria.”
However, The Daily Wire reports that the initial introduction of Twitter Blue “had been unsuccessful after people tried to pose as organizations or political figures. Musk then paused the verification plan in order to make sure that such issues wouldn’t come up again in the future.”
Twitter has started to roll out updates to Musk’s initial verification system structure. The New York Post explains, “The latest iteration of ‘Twitter Blue’ includes a color-coded system whereby gold checkmarks are reserved for businesses while gray symbols are for governing authorities.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Musk’s plans to update the Twitter verification process:
Musk said that he wants to do away with the current system for the blue checkmark, which previously indicated verified users.
The SpaceX founder said that he wants to implement a paid subscription of $7.99/month for Twitter users to receive the blue check-mark.
“Far too many corrupt legacy Blue ‘verification’ checkmarks exist, so no choice but to remove legacy Blue in coming months,” Musk wrote in a tweet.
The term ‘legacy” referred to Twitter’s old system of handing out check-marks to profiles with high follower counts and media notoriety.
“Blue check will be the great leveler,” Musk added in another Tweet.
However, many Twitter users are unhappy with the impending change. While previously verified users will keep their checkmark for now, every user can subscribe to the Twitter Blue to receive a checkmark of their own.
Musk explained: “Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn.”
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