By John Ikani
X, formerly known as Twitter, has announced that users will now be able to hide their once-revered blue check marks.
The blue checks, once seen as a status symbol on Twitter prior to Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform, have faced criticism from some quarters, with claims that they indicate a willingness to pay for special privileges.
“As a subscriber, you now have the choice to hide your checkmark on your account,” stated a help page on X.
By design, blue ticks were meant to signal the verification of certain users like journalists, celebrities, and politicians, in an effort to foster trust on the platform.
However, Musk criticized this system, calling it a “lords & peasants system,” and opened access to the blue check marks to anyone who paid for a Blue subscription. The subscription, priced at $8 per month, also grants access to other exclusive features.
The program was temporarily halted due to issues with people buying check marks and impersonating high-profile figures, including Musk himself.
In April, the unconventional billionaire made good on his promise to remove free blue ticks from Twitter users, garnering both praise for promoting equality and criticism for seemingly requiring payment to maintain status on the platform.
Even Stephen King, the acclaimed author, who had previously vowed not to pay, was surprised to find he still had his blue check.
Responding to a news article about blue check marks, Musk admitted to personally paying for a few and playfully replied to King’s comment with “You’re welcome namaste.”
The recent revelation that X Blue subscribers can now hide their status provoked one user to claim that Musk had “destroyed a decade-old symbol of trust and turned it into a mark of shame.”
A post from the X account @ianvisits noted that “Blue ticks are now so toxic that you can hide the fact that you have one.”
However, other features available to paid subscribers, like posts exceeding 280 characters, may still reveal that a user is a Blue subscriber, even if the blue tick is hidden.
X clarified on its help page that “The checkmark may still appear in some places and some features could still reveal you have an active subscription.”
