Might Twitter be trying to carry again legacy verified accounts?
That might be a stretch, however it’s experimenting with a new way to indicate an account’s verification historical past, which would come with a brand new itemizing of when an account had been verified, and signifying whether or not it was legacy verified or not.
As you may see on this instance, posted by app researcher Nima Owji, Twitter’s testing out new wording for its verification data pop-up, which would come with an indicator of when that particular account was verified.
Twitter beforehand displayed two completely different variations of this data field, which confirmed whether or not an account was both legacy verified or had subscribed to Twitter Blue. However with the removing of legacy blue ticks from the app final month, Twitter not wanted the legacy explainer, and eliminated it from the app.
However since then, Twitter has additionally gifted verification to accounts with over one million followers, which means that not the entire accounts that presently have a blue tick are subscribed to Twitter Blue. That might be seen as a false endorsement, and perhaps this new strategy is a step in direction of lowering that concern, and offering extra readability over how precisely every account has obtained its checkmark.
If carried out, that might imply that every one accounts verified earlier than November 2022, when Elon Musk launched the brand new paid verification scheme, can be legacy verified, whereas all accounts after wouldn’t.
Would that be sufficient, from a authorized standpoint, to avoid wasting Twitter if a star have been to sue over the false illustration that they’ve bought a blue tick?
I’d hazard a wager that it most likely wouldn’t – however perhaps, Twitter may make the argument that this does present that readability, whereas it will even be a useful measure for customers to grasp which accounts could be trusted, based mostly on their earlier verification historical past.
Which may, as famous, open the door for Twitter to carry again all of the legacy verified ticks.
Legacy checkmarks are still active in the app, Twitter’s simply hidden them – and perhaps, this new indicator may give Twitter a way to stroll again the removing of legacy blue ticks, and restore a measure of safety and belief within the course of.
As a result of whereas not all legacy checkmarks have been awarded on advantage, as Elon has noted, lots of the 400,000 or so blue ticks got to customers based mostly on correct checks and processes, and did give customers one other measure of belief within the app. Restoring them would additionally add extra worth again to Twitter’s paid checkmark system, which individuals are attempting to purchase into – as a result of proper now, the one factor a blue tick represents is that this individual is paying $8 per 30 days to make use of the app.
If all celebrities and sports activities stars obtained their tick again, perhaps extra customers would wish to additionally purchase in – whereas it may additionally assist to handle issues with blue tick accounts dominating conversations within the app, which can be impacting engagement.
Once more, it’s most likely a stretch to imagine that that is the place Twitter is headed with this potential replace, but it surely might be one other marker that its $8 verification scheme hasn’t delivered as hoped.
