Twitter will kill ‘legacy’ blue checks on April 1

Twitter has picked April Fool’s Day, otherwise known as April 1, to start removing legacy blue checkmarks from accounts that had them on the platform.

Despite the significance of the day Twitter chose, the move has been anticipated for months now. Musk tweeted in December that the company would remove those checks “in a few months” because “the way in which they were given out was corrupt and nonsensical.”

Since then, people with legacy blue checkmarks have been seeing a pop-up when they click on their checkmark that reads, “This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable.”

On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks. To keep your blue checkmark on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue here: https://t.co/gzpCcwOpLp

Organizations can sign up for https://t.co/RlN5BbuGA3…

— Verified (@verified) March 23, 2023

Before Musk acquired the company, Twitter used checkmarks to verify individuals and entities as active, authentic and notable accounts of interest. Verified checkmarks were doled out for free.

Today, Twitter users can purchase a blue check through the Twitter Blue subscription for $8 per month (iOS and Android signups will cost $11 per month due to app store costs). There are also other checkmark colors and badges available for purchase to denote whether an account belongs to a business or a government, for example.

Twitter says the purchase of a checkmark gives users access to subscriber-only features, like fewer ads on their timeline, prioritized ranking in conversations, bookmark folders, and the ability to craft long tweets, edit tweets and undo tweets.

The news comes just hours after Twitter made Blue subscriptions available globally.

Twitter did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for information about how many users have already signed up for Twitter Blue.