Twitter owner Elon Musk had promised to put an end to the legacy blue check badge that was given to media and government personalities, but his plans have been delayed. Instead, Twitter has stopped distinguishing between those who pay for Twitter Blue and those who have a legacy verified badge. But there’s an iOS Shortcut that lets you find out if the person behind a Twitter account is paying for the blue badge or not.
The Checkmate shortcut shows who’s verified and who’s paying for Twitter Blue
Instead of removing the verified badge from people who don’t pay for Twitter Blue, the company updated its app and website to make that information ambiguous. Previously, Twitter displayed the message: “This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable.” But now it shows that the account is “verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.”
Twitter’s verified badge was created to confirm the identity and authenticity of specific accounts, such as those of journalists, politicians, artists, companies, and institutions. That way, users could know they were interacting with an official account. But with Twitter Blue, anyone who pays for the subscription can get the same badge.
If you still want to know whether a verified Twitter account is in fact authentic or are simply paying for Twitter Blue, there’s a way. Mike Beasley has created the “Checkmate” Shortcut to let iOS users identify whether the blue seal on a specific account is legitimate or from Twitter Blue.
“With all of the recent terrible changes at Twitter, it’s getting hard to tell who is or isn’t actually notable,” Beasley says. “Checkmate allows you to see through this nonsense and find out exactly how someone got verified,” he adds.
All you need to do is add the Checkmate shortcut to your device, then open Twitter, choose an account you want to check, and share it with the Checkmate shortcut. With a few seconds, it will show whether the verified badge of that account is legacy or from Twitter Blue. It can even show if an account was legitimately verified in the past and is now a Blue subscriber.
Musk wants everyone to pay for a blue badge
On Sunday, Elon Musk said on Twitter that he would give non-paying users “a few weeks grace” before removing their verified badges. The reason would be because removing the verified badges would require extensive manual work, which doesn’t seem ideal since Twitter has laid off many of its employees. Musk later deleted the tweet.
It’s worth noting that Musk also announced that Twitter will stop recommending tweets from non-Blue users. Such users should also be blocked from voting in polls in the future.
According to Musk, the original verification system was misleading and unfair. But in reality, Twitter Blue is letting everyone pretend to have a legitimate account without any ID verification. Now it remains unclear for how long the “legacy” verified accounts will keep their blue badge.
H/T: Matt Navarra
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