NEW YORK — Everyone who uses Twitter will see a major change starting Saturday. That's when the service plans to end its traditional verification system that saw blue checkmarks on select accounts.
The verification system was put in place by Twitter largely to combat fake accounts spreading false information. The purpose was to give users confidence that an account with a blue checkmark was a legitimate account and could be trusted.
Starting Saturday, the only users who will have blue checkmarks will be subscribers to Twitter Blue. The subscription service will cost a user between $8 and $11 a month, depending on how they sign up for the service.
There will be other checkmarks available, including a gold check mark for businesses that pay $1,000 a month for the service. There will also be a gray checkmark which means an "account represents a government/multilateral organization or a government/multilateral official."
The changes are part of Twitter CEO Elon Musk's plans to make more money off the service after he paid more than $40 billion for the service.
Many media organizations, journalists, entertainers, and others have vowed not to pay for the service. With the loss of the verification, users will now have a more difficult time determining which accounts are legitimate and which ones may be paid accounts or even paid parody accounts.
ABC Action News and its parent company Scripps Broadcasting have worked to help people find reliable information and identify content that is either false or deceptive through our News Literacy Project.
- News Literacy: How to verify what you're reading online is true
- News Literacy: A look inside a TV newsroom and the journalistic process to report the truth
- Experts say anyone can fall prey to misinformation; there are tools to help
The loss of the verification checkmarks for most users isn't the only change coming up for Twitter.
Starting April 15, the service will change the "For You" tab in the app to only highlight Twitter Blue subscribers, meaning paid users.
