Twitter Verified unfollows all accounts. Is it time to pay for your blue tick?

Twitter chief Elon Musk's push for paid blue checkmarks may not have worked as he anticipated, as major institutions in the US including the White House refused to pay for the verified tag. Amid the push-back against the subscription scheme, Musk had announced that on April 1, Twitter would remove blue checkmarks from all legacy verified accounts that do not sign up for its $8 per month Twitter Blue service.

Though this has not happened yet, Twitter Verified account on Friday unfollowed everyone including Musk himself. The account reportedly followed over 420,000 legacy verified accounts earlier. Though Musk has not issued a clarification, it is said this could be a move towards verification removal. According to a report by Mashable, only 12,305 accounts had subscribed to the paid Twitter Blue plan as of Tuesday.

Twitter has already removed the blue tick from the New York Times after the news orgnaisation refused to pay for the plan. Several other news outlets in the US, including The Washington Post and CNN have said they will not pay for Twitter verification. A representative of the Post said that it is now evident that verified checkmarks no longer represent authority and expertise.

Twitter first introduced verified accounts in 2009 to help users identify that celebrities, politicians, companies and brands, news organisations and other accounts "of public interest" were genuine and not impostor accounts.

In an attempt to boost dwindling revenues, Musk rolled out his new verification system in October shortly after acquiring the microblogging platform. However, the initial roll-out was a disaster and had to be paused after fake and parody accounts seized blue ticks. In December, Twitter brought back the service, along with gold and grey checkmarks for businesses and government accounts.

The Twitter Blue subscription, which includes features like the ability to edit tweets and share tweets up to 4,000 characters, costs Rs 900 per month in India on iOS and Android. On desktop, it costs Rs 650 per month.