I got my Twitter check mark about eight years ago while working as a cub reporter at a digital news outlet. I did nothing to earn it except show up to work one day. ''Oh, hey would you look at that!'' It feels pathetic to reflect on how excited I was about getting a check mark, but that was still the era when digital journalism was being taken seriously. Getting that check, which denoted that Twitter had confirmed the identity of the account's owner and operator, gave me credibility. After much throat clearing, Twitter started removing the check marks from previously verified accounts whose users declined to pay a fee, which was most of them. Then, anyone can be verified on Twitter. It costs you $8 a month, and comes with basically none of the usefulness that verification used to offer because Twitter is no longer confirming that people are who they say they are.
The change in verification is one of the most visible effects that Elon Musk has had on Twitter since he purchased it last year. The information on the site, once considered essential to following breaking news, is now becoming more difficult to access. The verification change is part of a shift that will make many prominent users less visible because they declined to pay to retain their check marks. When Musk announced that all previously verified users would be losing their status, a blue check was nothing to be proud of. Some users are now calling it the dreaded mark or that stinking badge, my colleagues Callie Holtermann and Lora Kelley reported last week. The icon makes its owner appear desperate for validation, according to the rapper Doja Cat. Twitter has also restored blue checks for popular users who didn 't want them, such as Stephen King, Bette Midler and LeBron James. Teigen, a model and internet personality, called her blue check a form of punishment. I would argue that the Bluecheck was never as covetable as Musk thought it was. It is known as a lords peasants system. For me and many other reporters, it was essentially just a tool to prove to sources I was who I was. No difference between press badges and business cards. Why should anybody care about check mark changes, especially if their job doesn't involve sliding into DMs? Twitter's check mark system wasn 't perfect, but it did make it easier for users to figure out if tweets were coming from a real person or organization, or from an account pretending to be Eli Lilly and promising free insulin for all. This was actually done in November 2022, when the company's stock was tanked.