Twitter's legacy blue ticks start vanishing from verified accounts

Twitter has begun the mass removal of its blue ticks, as the symbol previously used to signify a verified account vanished from users including the Pope, Donald Trump and Justin Bieber.

The news comes as the social media platform also dropped "state-affiliated" and "government-funded" labels from media accounts, according to news agencies on Friday.

Many major media outlets from Western nations, Russia, China and other countries that previously had either of those tags no longer displayed them, according to AFP news agency.

Owner Elon Musk, who has seen his $44 billion investment in the site shrivel, earlier pledged to get rid of what he described as a "lords & peasants system."

He offered instead to sell the blue badge to anyone who would pay $8 a month, in a move he said last year would "democratise journalism & empower the voice of the people."

Earlier dates set for the rollback of the ticks — predominately used by celebrities, journalists and politicians — have slipped by without noticeable action.

But on Thursday high-profile accounts, as well as those of many staffers at TRT World and other news organisations, appeared to have had the checkmarks removed.

Politicians and official bodies also appeared to have been hit, with US Senator Brian Schatz objecting to the possible effect on public confidence in the event of disasters.

"There really ought to be a way for emergency managers to verify that they are real on this website or imposters will cause suffering and death," he tweeted.

"I am not complaining about my own check mark, I just think during natural disasters it’s essential to know that FEMA is actually FEMA," he wrote, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency that steps in after hurricanes and deadly storms.

Thursday's removals follow spats between Twitter and various news organisations that have objected to labels appended to their accounts indicating they were "state affiliated" or "government funded."

Sweden's public radio Sveriges Radio said this week it would stop tweeting, following in the footsteps of US radio station NPR and Canadian broadcaster CBC.

The costs of keeping the marks range from $8 a month for individual web users to a starting price of $1,000 monthly to verify an organisation, plus $50 monthly for each affiliate or employee account.

READ MORE: Users of Musk's Twitter can soon get blue check for $8 monthly fee

Checks unchecked

Celebrity users, from basketball star LeBron James to author Stephen King and Star Trek’s William Shatner, have balked at joining — although on Thursday, all three had blue checks indicating that the account paid for verification.

It was not immediately clear whether that was the case or if Twitter made an exception for them. 

King, for one, said he hadn’t paid.

“My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t,” King tweeted Thursday. “Just so you know.”

Singer Dionne Warwick tweeted earlier in the week that the site’s verification system “is an absolute mess.”

Fewer than 5 percent of legacy verified accounts appear to have paid to join Twitter Blue as of Thursday, according to an analysis by Travis Brown, a Berlin-based developer of software for tracking social media.

READ MORE: Elon Musk acknowledges 'many mistakes' since Twitter takeover

Turbulent ownership

Musk's tumultuous ownership of Twitter has seen thousands of staff made redundant and advertisers fleeing the platform.

He insisted that the monthly $8 payment is necessary and will give the platform stream to reward content creators.

"Trash me all day, but it'll cost $8," he tweeted back on November 5.

Digital intelligence platform Similarweb analysed how many people signed up for Twitter Blue on their desktop computers and only detected 116,000 confirmed sign-ups last month, which at $8 or $11 per month does not represent a major revenue stream.

Users complain that hate speech and misinformation have proliferated, and accounts with extreme views are gaining traction due to less content moderation.

This month, a closely watched forecast said Twitter's income from advertising will fall by a large margin in 2023.

Analysts at Insider Intelligence said they were slashing an earlier worldwide revenue estimate of $4.74 billion by more than a third to $2.98 billion as trust deteriorates.

According to research firm Pathmatics, 14 of the top 30 advertisers on Twitter stopped advertising on the platform since Musk took charge on October 27.

Insider Intelligence noted that Musk's efforts to build up a subscription service "won't make up for the lost ad revenue."

READ MORE: Musk defends controversial pay model for Twitter