Elon Musk’s Twitter phases out ‘blue checks’, with LeBron James, White House refusing to pay for verification

A variety of news outlets, celebrities, athletes, and even the White House have said they don’t plan to pay for Twitter Blue once the platform’s “legacy” blue checks disappear.

Twitter said last week that it would be “winding down” the programme, which Elon Musk previously called “deeply corrupted,” by removing the checks starting on April 1. But as of Saturday afternoon, the old checks still were active, so their future is unclear.

A former Twitter employee posted a series of tweets on Friday outlining why moving to all-paid verified accounts is risky, and how it could drive away some of platform’s biggest names who have posted for free for years.

Individuals can subscribe to Twitter Blue for US$8 per month. Twitter has a separate programme for businesses called Verified Organizations, which offers a gold check and the chance to be affiliated with other accounts associated with your business, for a whopping US$1,000 per month.

That proposal reportedly was met with apprehension and criticism from businesses. Later, The New York Times reported an internal Twitter document that said the top 500 advertisers and 10,000 most-followed businesses would be able to keep their checks without shelling out the high fee.

Several news outlets have said they don’t plan to pay for the gold check. Others don’t plan to reimburse journalists who pay for Twitter Blue, largely saying that since blue checks only convey a user paid US$8, they no longer provide the credibility they once did, according to CNN.

The cable news channel said it won’t be paying, and cited statements or internal memos from The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Politico, BuzzFeed, Washington Post, and Vox that confirmed the outlets either wouldn’t pay for the gold check, or wouldn’t pay for staff to retain their blue checks.