The White House informed its employees in an email on Friday that they would have to pay out-of-pocket if they wanted to continue having their blue tick since the administration will not be subscribing to Twitter Blue, as per a report in Axios.
Rob Flaherty, the White House's Head of Digital Strategy, said in the email, "It is our understanding that Twitter Blue does not provide person-level verification as a service. Thus, a blue check mark will now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user."
The White House has stated that it will not pay to become verified as an organisation and will not reimburse employees who buy Twitter Blue on their personal social media accounts, as per the outlet.
"Twitter's enterprise service, Verification for Organization, does appear to provide organization-association verification. There are ongoing trials for the program that we are monitoring, but we will not enroll in it. Staff may purchase Twitter Blue on their personal social media accounts using personal funds," Mr Flaherty further said in the email.
Although this email was sent internally to White House employees, according to Axios, some agencies and departments may receive similar guidance in the future. The US President and Vice President will likely continue to be verified with a grey checkmark.
According to the outlet, White House-specific accounts are made for each administration's staff members, which include their names followed by a number designating the government they work for. Officials from the Joe Biden administration in this instance have a "46" after their Twitter handles, for example, Mr Flaherty's Twitter username is @RFlaherty46.
The email was sent to the employees, including those who tweet from the official White House "46" account. In his email, Mr Flaherty advised the staffers where to submit any potential account impersonations and acknowledged the potential consequences of the changes.
It is to be noted that the White House will join individuals like NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes and NBA superstar Lebron James in refusing to continue paying the monthly charge to be verified. Media organisations based in the US including the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have also informed staff members that they will not be paying for Twitter Blue.
Although, Elon Musk, the Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, announced that the coveted blue ticks from legacy verified accounts will be removed from April 1, however, the microblogging site has so far not followed through on the announcement and users continue to have the legacy blue checkmark on their profiles. It has only removed the gold "verified" marker from the New York Times' main account. The CEO also bashed the news organization as spreading "propaganda".
