Microblogging platform Twitter will remove the legacy blue tick from verified accounts from today (April 20). This comes months after the company's CEO Elon Musk announced the date to press users to sign up for Twitter Blue, its paid subscription service. This move will also affect organizations and their affiliates on the microblogging platform.
In January, the new owner launched 'Twitter Verified Organizations' feature that enables organizations of all types-businesses, non-profits, and government institutions-to sign up and manage their verification and to affiliate and verify any related accounts.
According to the microblogging site, a gold checkmark and square avatar will be given to any company that purchases a subscription to Verified Organizations if it is a business or non-profit, or a grey checkmark and circular avatar if it is a governmental or multilateral organization.
Additionally, organizations have the option to affiliate any person or entity with them. "An affiliated account receives verification (denoted by either a blue, gold, or grey checkmark) as well as an affiliate badge, a small image of their parent company's profile picture, displayed next to their checkmark," the microblogging site noted. A company might associate its leadership, brands, support channels, personnel or teams and similarly, a government may affiliate its wards, officers or other entities.
While there is no official word from the company on what exactly will happen to organizations, several outlets have reported that the organizations could be stripped of the coveted golden checkmark. A similar action was taken against The New York Times, when the company refused to pay subscription fees for Twitter Blue.
It is to be noted that there is no restriction on the number of affiliates that an organisation may have (as long as they are related to each other). "All vetted and approved government organization and government individuals accounts can receive a grey checkmark and affiliate badge if they sign up for Verified Organizations," Twitter further mentioned.
A Twitter Verified Organization subscription is Rs 82,300 per month in India and Rs 4,120 for each additional affiliate. The amount mentioned for the service is excluding any taxes.
Each and every benefit of Twitter Blue will be available to all accounts (organisations and their affiliates) enrolled to Verified Organisations. Features like edit tweets, bookmark folders, longer tweets, prioritised rankings in conversations, text formatting, NFT profile pictures, themes, top articles and half ads will be available.
However, Twitter will make an exception and maintain verification status for the platform's top 500 advertisers and the 10,000 most-followed organizations, according to company documents seen by the New York Times. It was also reported that the grey checkmark "will be given to accounts representing a national government or government officials without requiring them to pay a subscription fee".
