The White House Won't Pay For Staff's Twitter Checkmarks
The White House has told its staff that it won’t pay for their Twitter profiles to continue to be verified ahead of the company removing legacy verified checkmarks, Axios reports(Opens in a new window).
In a Friday email sent to staffers by White House director of digital strategy, Rob Flaherty said: “It is our understanding that Twitter Blue does not provide person-level verification as a service. Thus, a blue check mark will now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user.”
While President Biden and Vice President Harris will stay verified with a grey check mark and so will top government officials, it’s not clear exactly which officials will hold on to the check marks, according to a source who spoke to Axios. In his email, Flaherty said that Twitter would no longer be able to guarantee verification for federal government accounts that don’t meet its new eligibility requirements.
According to a further source familiar with the White House’s Twitter strategy who spoke to Axios, the guidance was not a reflection of overall government agency plans and was only for individual staffers at the White House.
As Axios notes, companies and businesses are required to pay $1,000 per month for the benefits of a gold check mark, and the blue check marks of their employees.
In the email, Flaherty made it clear the White House would not pay for staffers’ verified badges: “Staff may purchase Twitter Blue on their personal social media accounts using personal funds,” it emphasized.
In March, Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced that legacy verified check marks on the platform would be removed starting April 1. The New York Times reported(Opens in a new window) this week that Twitter will make exceptions for its top 500
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