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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Technology
Danni Scott

Elon Musk announces another date that legacy blue ticks will be removed from Twitter

Anyone who uses Twitter has probably noticed a lot of changes recently, since billionaire Elon Musk purchased the social media site for $44 billion (£35bn) last year.

Musk's changes have included firing a large number of staff, changing the Twitter bird for a dog and introducing the controversial Twitter Blue.

Almost all the decisions have been met with public outcry and tanked the worth of the site to less than half what Musk paid for it.

In his latest announcement, the Tesla owner shared the date that legacy verified accounts would lose their blue tick and, in true, Musk fashion it's meme-related.

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Twitter Blue is a paid for verification service (STR/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock)

Twitter has always used a verification process to prevent people impersonating celebrities, companies, and other public figures online. This blue checkmark identified the account as the official one for that particular person or brand, be it Adele or Aldi - you knew they were real.

Since the Musk takeover, this "legacy verification" process has been swept aside in favour of Twitter Blue, a paid-for service which gives you the verified tick without having to prove your identity.

On April 1, the Tesla co-founder threatened the removal of the legacy blue tick as part of an April fools prank but now he's once again announced the tick will be scrapped.

He tweeted: "Final date for removing legacy Blue checks is 4/20".

This removal would force legacy verified accounts to decide if they should pay for Twitter Blue, which many argue is meaningless, or lose the only thing that marks the account as official.

Twitter Blue costs £11 ($8) per month and lets users edit tweets after sending, get priority positioning in threads and upload longer videos - as well as giving the account a blue tick without a verification process.

It's unknown if Musk will go through with it this time as the date is a long-running meme about cannabis consumption, and April 20 is unofficially National Weed Day.

The 51-year-old often engages with meme culture in his changes and announcements, such as the Twitter bird being replaced with meme dog, Doge.

Musk's announcement got a mixed response as some fans supported the move but most users are against the new Twitter Blue as it will make it harder to tell which accounts are legitimate.

One user said: "I'm not worried about losing my verified checkmark. I'm worried about everyone else losing theirs.

"The value of the checkmark does not lie with the holder but with the people trying to determine whether to trust the source."

This has already become an issue as seen recently with a scam account pretending to be Martin Lewis to trick people into buying crypto currency.

While the fate of the verification tick has become hotly debated, some users are just tired of the changes, such as acclaimed horror author Stephen King who replied to Musk, saying: "Big whoop."

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