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In the latest turn of events in the Twitter saga, CEO Elon Musk has announced that the company will remove legacy Blue checks from the accounts on April 20.

This comes almost two weeks after the earlier April 1 deadline to remove the blue check-mark badges — meant to verify accounts of public figures, and other notable personalities — passed.

After acquiring the social media giant, Musk’s goal was to shove the advertising-dependent platform he bought for $44 billion last year into a pay-to-play model.

Besides monetization, Musk says this decision is a step toward promoting transparency and fairness in social media. It remains to be seen how this move will impact Twitter’s verification process, and whether other social media platforms will follow suit.

Last month, Musk defended his controversial pay model for Twitter, claiming that any social media platform that didn’t follow suit would fail.

“The fundamental challenge here is that it’s (easy) to create literally 10,000 or 100,000 fake Twitter accounts using just one computer at home and with modern AI (artificial intelligence),” Musk told a question and answer session on Twitter, as quoted by AFP.

“That’s the reason for really pressing hard on verified where the verified requires a number from a reputable phone carrier and a credit card,” Musk said.

“My prediction is that any so-called social media network that doesn’t do this will fail,” Musk added.

The change in the system puts pressure on companies, journalists and celebrities who used Twitter as their main channel of communication and relied on the blue tick for credibility.

(With agency input)

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