International Tax Panorama

After Elon Musk announced removing Twitter’s verified legacy users on April 1, many known celebrities and personalities have refused to pay $8/month for a verified checkmark next to their name.

On the other , This “Verified for Organizations” programme is now available globally, but several businesses worldwide are not willing to pay the $1,000 monthly fee to retain their verified checkmarks, along with an additional $50 for each affiliated Twitter account.

Which accounts have refused to pay verified badge?

According to the micro-blogging site’s CEO, 42,000 ‘notable’ users on the platform were stripped off their verification badge yesterday.

Many personalities like NBA star, LeBron James and William Shatner, have tweeted their decision to not opt for the new verification programme.

 The White House will not be paying for the verified service as an internal staff email showed the Biden administration considered the blue badge to merely serve as “a verification that the account is a paid user”.

Major news sources like the New York Times, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed,  The Los Angeles Times have shared their intention of not purchasing the blue badge for any of their staff or administration members.

Some American news organizations have publicly announced that they will not pay for any kind of subscription

Impact on authenticity of Twitter Users

This decision has raised concerns among news organizations about the role of the blue checkmark in establishing their credibility as legitimate sources of information.

It’s evident that verified checkmarks no longer represent authority and expertise.

The New York Times on Sunday lost its legacy verification badge as it refused to pay Twitter for the blue tick.

This comes in the wake of Musk’s new Twitter Blue policy which requires all individuals/organisations to pay a monthly fee to keep the verification badge intact. Twitter announced that it will be doing away with the blue ticks for legacy verified accounts starting April 1.