'Makes No Sense': Users Criticize Twitter's Move To End 'Legacy' Checks From April 1

KEY POINTS

Twitter will remove legacy verified checks for both individual users and organizations from April 1
Millionaire Jenny Q. Ta said paid verified accounts are "meaningless"
The social media platform will no longer accept verification applications under the previous criteria

Twitter has decided to remove all "legacy" blue checks on the social media platform from April 1 and users are not happy with the move.

"On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks," the company said Thursday. CEO Elon Musk previously announced that "legacy" blue checks, the verified tickmarks on verified handles that have not subscribed to Twitter Blue, would be removed as "the way in which they were given out was corrupt and nonsensical."

Many "legacy" verified users expressed disappointment over the social media giant's latest announcement.

"I'm sure you won't care, but so many of these changes that seem unnecessary kind of ruin the vibe," said Dex Badgett, social community manager at Activision's Call of Duty. Sharing the congratulatory notes his wife and daughter sent him on the day he was verified, Badgett said Twitter verification was "a huge goal of mine."

It was a huge goal of mine to get verified and when it finally happened — I was at work. I came home to this little surprise from my wife and daughter.

I’m sure you won’t care, but so many of these changes that seem unnecessary kinda ruin the vibe pic.twitter.com/Uyj693gWAL
— Dex (@DEXB0T) March 23, 2023

Sam Mathews, the founder of sports e-commerce company Fnatic, said the decision to remove "legacy" verification "makes no sense." He said he subscribed to Twitter Blue only because he uses its ''nice" features to get commentator output regarding Fnatic.

"But removing verification from the people who are notable for some reason makes no sense," he tweeted. "Now there's no way of knowing if there's any industry people commenting or providing thoughts on recent actions by @fnatic."

I bought twitter blue for the features, it’s nice.

But removing verification from the people who are notable for some reason makes no sense, I use it a lot when there’s a lot of noise to get for example commmentators or other players or other team owners opinion. Now there’s no…
— Sam Mathews (@sammathews) March 23, 2023

Stephen Kallao, host and producer of NPR's radio program "World Café," said the removal of legacy checks will result in "actual notable people" not being taken seriously on the platform.

Here's how this will shake out. Actual notable people won't be taken seriously because folks will think they're a troll account with twitter blue. Some notable will not pay for the check and people will think that's a fake account too. Brilliant work all around.
— Kallao (@stephenkallao) March 23, 2023

"You shouldn't charge journalists & other members of the media because people need to know they can trust us now more than ever," writer Tara Dublin wrote.

Why would you do this to the people who need the protection the most?

I get harassed every day. I also write about politics for a living & you shouldn’t charge journalists & other members of the media because people need to know they can trust us now more than ever pic.twitter.com/Ig4tJ44jrG
— Tara Dublin (@taradublinrocks) March 24, 2023

Documentarian Ford Fischer noted that while he agrees legacy checkmarks were "inequitably granted," Twitter will become "unusable" if there's no way to distinguish between real accounts and trolls or copycats.

I pay for Twitter Blue, and I actually did so well before the Elon takeover as well.

I agree that legacy checkmarks need to be vastly more accessible, and were inequitably granted.

But this website will be unusable if imposter accounts are indistinguishable. https://t.co/xCoHVrnJSd
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) March 24, 2023

Gaming YouTuber Jon said the removal of legacy blue checks was "the biggest slap in the face" of Twitter users who "legitimately" obtained verification in the past.

"Paid verified are meaningless," seasoned entrepreneur and millionaire Jenny Q. Ta tweeted.

He’s welcome to take it, Stephen. Paid verified are meaningless. Only dumb morons are paying him bc he needs money and the fools are falling for it.
— Jenny Q Ta (@JQT_web3vc) March 23, 2023

Musical artist Ay-Rock said Twitter will "not mean anything" if it removes the legacy checks of users who went through the long verification process.

Food and beverage company G Fuel, which has over 1.6 million Twitter followers; actor Sean Maguire and many others also shared their thoughts on the matter.

We had a good run lol.
— G FUEL® (@GFuelEnergy) March 23, 2023

Well that won’t cause any problems. 😡Thanks for making it so much easier to masquerade as other people on this app, which happens enough as is, really wish you would reconsider.
— Sean Maguire 🇺🇦 (@sean_m_maguire) March 23, 2023

Take it back. It's meaningless now anyway. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) March 23, 2023

Hey, @elonmusk seriously. If you said you needed more cash to ensure free speech, charge ten bucks a month. Hell, make it twenty. I'd kick in. But you have insulted everyone with a check (including me) and are now making it a "verification" of whoever gave you eight bucks.
— Jazz Shaw (@JazzShaw) March 23, 2023

So it’s no longer whether or not you’re notable, but whether or not you’re profitable.
— Jonathan Goldman (@akjakalope) March 24, 2023

Keeping a record: Once upon a time,
I was a legacy verified not the $8/month! pic.twitter.com/oYP7P8fm8j
— Maxtern (@RealMaxtern) March 23, 2023

Some "legacy" blue check holders said they were actually okay with the decision.

Oh thank god I was dying to get rid of this.
— Alex Edelman (@AlexEdelman) March 24, 2023

People have been accusing me of paying Elon. This will be clarifying.
— Helen Kennedy 🌻 (@HelenKennedy) March 24, 2023

Thank you for doing this. I’m not even being sarcastic. Some users on Twitter were starting to confuse me for the type of person who’d pay $8 a month to feel special. It was embarrassing.
— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) March 24, 2023

Musk warned about the move to remove legacy checks in December, just weeks after the mass layoffs that cut about half of Twitter's entire workforce.

Since his announcement, legacy account holders have been seeing a pop-up whenever they click on their checkmarks. "This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable," the pop-up read, TechCrunch reported.

Twitter has also updated its verified accounts guide. "Twitter will no longer be accepting applications for the blue Verification checkmarks under the previous criteria (active, notable, and authentic)," it said.

The social media company announced Thursday that the Twitter Blue subscription option is now available around the world. It promises half the number of ads, long tweets, an option to undo tweets, custom navigation and "prioritized ranking in conversations," among others for $8 monthly on web and $11 per month on iOS and Android.

Musk has been implementing sweeping changes across the social media platform since his $44 billion takeover of the company last October. Aside from mass layoffs that affected thousands of employees, the tech mogul also declared his ambitions of turning Twitter into the world's biggest financial institution.

Meanwhile, Musk has called Facebook parent Meta's decision to roll out a paid subscription service "inevitable." Similar to Twitter Blue, Meta's Meta Verified, which is still in the testing stage, would provide "extra protection" against impersonator accounts.

Musk faced criticism for turning Twitter checkmarks into paid subscription, but he claimed the move was to "empower the voice of the people." He explained that paid Twitter checks will help the troubled platform make money as the company can no longer solely rely on advertisers.