Ah, Twitter verification – the ultimate social media flex.

Forget about all those other platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram. When it comes to credibility and clout, Twitter is where it’s at.

It’s like having a fashionable accessory for your profile, the kind that screams “I’ve made it.” It’s the virtual equivalent of rolling up to a party in a Lamborghini, decked out in all the latest Supreme gear, a Rolex on each wrist, and an entourage of adoring fans.
And at the center of it all, a tiny blue and oh-so-cute checkmark, letting the world know that you are verified, you are legit, and you are a force to be reckoned with on Twitter.

You have the power. You are legit.

But that’s all in the past now, and we can all blame one man. I know him. You know him. Everyone knows him.

But before that, let’s talk about a little bit of history in the tiny blue checkmark. Twitter verification was launched in 2009 after being criticized by Kanye West (this is 808s & Heartbreak Kanye mind you), over impersonator accounts. Twitter stated that it “proactively verifies accounts on an ongoing basis to make it easier for users to find who they’re looking for”.

In 2016, Twitter began accepting requests for verification, but it was discontinued the same year because there were too many people applying and Twitter couldn’t keep up. So they decided that Twitter would approach accounts on its own to start the process a.k.a. The “don’t call us, we’ll call you” Plan.

And in November 2022, Twitter users with an active Twitter Blue subscription may also display the blue checkmark. This decision most likely came from the man that’s behind all of this.

( mohammed_hassan / Pixabay )

Elon Musk. The Musk. Mr. Tweet. The man who wanted to buy Twitter then didn’t want to but had to buy eventually because no take-backsies. Classic origin story.

The behind SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company, OpenAI and many more had to buy Twitter for $44 Billion (*insert Dr. Evil pinky pose*) and is now struggling with the negative press it’s getting, the massive layoffs, massive drop in stock price, and he’s struggling on how to make money with it.

One of his plans was to add the blue checkmark on Twitter Blue as a way to get more people to subscribe. In my opinion, there are not enough features to entice anyone to get it apart from having the blue checkmark. And that in itself has its own implications.

Because Twitter verification is a checkmark (no pun intended) for people to know that the tweet is actually coming from a real person or organization. For example, when the World Health Organization announced Covid19 as a pandemic in 2020, everyone didn’t hesitate to believe it (apart from the conspiracy theorists out there, you know who you are), because the announcement came from a verified source (WOH), that was also reflected by verified news outlets, journalists, government, etc.

Also, people on the internet live by one currency alone. And no it’s not a cryptocurrency, it’s the currency we all know as, clout. Nothing gets more clout on the internet than being Twitter verified. Nothing like Twitter verified keeps you relevant in this digital age, and at worst, the clout you get is some people’s overall sense of worth. I know it’s a bit sad but it’s true.

So adding the blue checkmark in Twitter Blue makes it much easier for people to get verified without much effort but at the cost of losing the value Twitter created in the first place.

( Maurício Mascaro / Pexels )

Now let’s put more bad news on top of more bad news.

So Twitter Overlord Elon just announced yesterday, April 20th, that Twitter is taking away everyone’s blue checkmarks, from politicians, celebrities, businesses, creators, everyone. And there’s an easy way to get it back.

Subscribe to Twitter Blue for $10/month.

Yes, the next phase of Elon’s plan is to make everyone subscribe to Twitter Blue so that he can probably make his money back. With an estimated 450 million active users as of 2022, that’s around..4 Billion, 500 Million dollars! That’s a lot of potential money for a month’s worth of Twitter Blue.

Another way is if you’re good buddies with Elon, he might get your checkmark back, by having him pay it for you.

He did that for his homeboys, like LeBron James, who didn’t really care about having it in the first place, but found out he still had it despite not subscribing. He did it also for The Pope, the audacity of this man to remove the checkmark to the only recognized Pope of the Catholic Church. At least he got it back.

So not everyone wants to subscribe to Twitter Blue to get their checkmarks back but that leads to confusing and dangerous situations. An account posing as Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – which are currently battling the Sudanese army in a major power struggle – tweeted that its leader, Hemedti, had been killed. This was not true. Although the account is fake, it does have a blue tick – while the real account does not. Many of the replies denounced the news as fake, but Twitter’s own public metrics indicated the tweet has been seen well over a million times.

This is just but none of the dangerous situations that can and will happen more in the future because of this blue check apocalypse.

( TheDigitalArtist / Pixabay )

This entire thing reminds me of the superhero movie The Incredibles. When Bob’s former sidekick Buddy becomes Syndrome, has been perfecting a robot by making it fight (and kill) many superheroes. Syndrome intends to send the robot to attack a city, then defeat it publicly with secret controls, thereby gaining “hero” status. He then plans to sell his inventions to the world to make the term “super” irrelevant and thus his quote:

“When everyone’s super… no one will be.”

I believe the same can apply to the blue checkmark. If everyone can be verified easily as just paying a few dollars a month. Then there’s no real value in it. Who’s to say now if there’s an argument between two sides that are both verified because they’re both subscribed to Twitter Blue, who is in the wrong, the imposter, and who’s the real thing and telling the truth? People can make imposter accounts of anyone and anything.

Apart from that, there’s an ongoing stigma that people who subscribe to Twitter Blue to get the checkmark are now dubbed as loser clout-chasing degenerates looking to get some clout. The people who have it are “verified” clout-chasers and the people who are not verified are now the cool kids talking down on the checkmarks. Oh, the irony.

All of this will bring us back to square one, back in 2009 when pre-canceled 808s & Heartbreak Kanye West amongst others complained of impersonator accounts. The difference now is that they can be verified imposter accounts. We can identify them easier and they get a badge of dishonor? A win is a win. A. Win. Is. A. Win?

When everyone’s verified… no one will be.