Who Gets The Blue Verified Check Mark On Twitter Now?

Now that Elon Musk has turned a nightmare into reality by actually purchasing the social media platform Twitter, he is running it like a Westerosi king in that his narcissism and ignorance are leading to absolute chaos. One of the many changes Mr. Musk has implemented since his purchase of the site includes the verification system as part of his little passion project, Twitter Blue.

Once meant for public figures including celebrities, journalists, companies, and politicians, being verified on Twitter (aka having a “blue check”) meant that the user has verified their identity and is, in fact, the real person they claim to be on Twitter. Identities online can easily be impersonated, so this clears that up, especially when it comes to public figures. In order to get verified, users were required to prove their identity with verification such as a driver’s license, along with reasons why they should be verified. Per NPR, the verified check mark has existed since 2009. The site launched in 2007.

Musk decided to throw all that out the window with Twitter Blue, which allows any user to get the blue check by paying a measly, pathetic $7.99 per month. This option launched on November 9. This means, essentially, that anyone who has a blue check mark gets to keep it, but anyone who wants one can get one, for a price. For a brief period on Tuesday, November 8, some verified users were double verified, which meant that they had “Official” badges on their profile indicating that . . . they are more verified than other people, apparently? The badges were killed after three hours. In addition to a (kind of fake?) blue check mark, Twitter Blue comes with access to an edit button. For already verified users such as Doja Cat, there is a catch. While they get to keep their verification badge, they cannot change their display names, meaning Doja Cat might forever be known as “christmas.”

“Far too many legacy ‘verified’ checkmarks were handed out, often arbitrarily, so in reality they are *not* verified,” Musk wrote on Twitter on November 5 with absolutely no evidence to justify the claim. “You can buy as many as you want right now with a Google search. Piggybacking off payment system plus Apple/Android is a much better way to ensure verification.” As Nathan Fielder would say, “Okay.”

Twitter Blue is, predictably, already going not according to Musk’s plan. Accounts can easily pretend to be people they are not, which is exactly what the existing verification process successfully prevented. Here are some amusing examples:

https://twitter.com/MisterRatt/status/1590632287544438784

https://twitter.com/Andr6wMale/status/1590746336713768974