In recent news, the controversial CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, is slated to remove legacy blue checks from Twitter in April 2021. This announcement comes as no surprise to the public-at-large, as Musk is well known for creating waves with his tweets and publicly speaking out against the tech giant.
Musk’s disdain for the blue check system dates back to as far as 2017, when he accused Twitter of “unfairly” verifying certain accounts, while others went unnoticed. Musk announced his plan to remove the blue checkmarks from all Twitter accounts on April 15th, setting off a wave of speculation from his followers.
It’s no secret that Musk has been a vocal critic of the Twitter blue check system for some time now. As one of the most influential people on the internet, his opinion carries immense weight. He has gone so far as to call the process of verifying accounts “arbitrary and subjective,” and has accused them of only rewarding the most popular personalities on the platform.
Musk has also been vocal in his criticism of blue checks being used to validate news sources, stating that they could create an unhealthy information ecosystem. It’s easy to see why he would want to do away with them; it would enable more people to be seen as equally credible sources on the platform, while giving others more authority to oversee the validity of news being shared.
The removal of these legacy blue checks on Twitter will surely cause shockwaves throughout the social media world. This April, many will be watching closely to see how a system that has been around for nearly a decade comes to an end. Elon’s date for removing it offers no surprises, as it was inevitable from the moment he first publicly criticized the process. One thing is for certain, the internet will never be the same in the post-blue check era.
