Twitter now makes it hard to tell who paid for subscription with new definition of verified

Changes widely criticised as they can lead to more opportunities for imposter accounts to be created

Twitter has removed information differentiating between legacy verified accounts and Twitter Blue subscribers in a move that has caused confusion among users.

Twitter updated the verification description for users on Sunday, making it impossible to distinguish between those who had paid for blue checkmarks and those whose accounts had legacy badges.

When users click on the blue tick of a Twitter account, the prompt now reads: “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.”

Previously, those who paid for Twitter Blue had a description that said the account is “verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue.”

Accounts verified under Twitter’s previous system had said: “This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable.”

Twitter chief Elon Musk had previously said the company was going to remove blue ticks from the accounts of legacy verified users from 1 April, meaning only accounts that paid the company $8 or $11 per month would have the badge.

The anticipated changes have been widely criticised as they can lead to more opportunities for imposter accounts to be created, with more likelihood of disinformation spreading on the platform.

“On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks,” Twitter had previously said.

However, only the account belonging to The New York Times lost its gold verification badge sometime between Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

In a since-deleted tweet, the Tesla titan said there would be a “grace” period of a few weeks before the verification checks for accounts not paying for the badge are removed “unless they tell they won’t pay now”.

Following the new change, that doesn’t make it clear to which category an account belongs, several users have said on the platform that they would not pay for Twitter Blue.

LA Laker LeBron James, actor Wesley Snipes, news organisations such as The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times as well as the White House, had said they would not pay Twitter for a verification badge.

CNN reporter Oliver Darcy reported last week that NYT would not be paying for its Twitter verification.

“We aren’t planning to pay the monthly fee for verification of our institutional Twitter accounts,” he said, quoting an NYT spokesperson.

“We also will not reimburse reporters for the verification of personal accounts, except in rare instances where verified status would be essential for reporting purposes,” the spokesperson said.