Twitter’s legacy blue checkmarks are officially gone — the conclusion of a promise made weeks ago by new owner Elon Musk to remove the icon that was once reserved for public figures in favour of a new paid verification programme that anyone can sign up for.
And prominent Nigerians including President Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Peter Obi, among others had the verification badges on their account removed on Thursday.
Globally, journalists, celebrities, political leaders and other notable users that choose not to pay $8 per month have lost the familiar check next to their handles on the app. On Thursday, the only users who still have a blue checkmark are those who pay for that privilege.
The change in rules was expected to cause an uptick in subscriptions, which Musk has said is key to future revenue growth for the platform. Twitter’s advertising revenue has declined by 50% between October and March, he tweeted last month.
After initially announcing the plans to remove the old checkmarks, Musk decided to give some verified users more time to decide whether to pay for the service. Currently, only about 1% of its users subscribe to the programme, called Twitter Blue. More than 500 million people use Twitter every month, Musk has said.
This comes on the heels of rebranding by Twitter Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, who had announced the final date for the free Blue badge removal via his verified account badges to be on April 20, 2023.