Twitter finally purges blue checks from formerly 'verified' accounts, including many game studios and developers
After months of build-up and increasingly exhausting fake-outs, Elon Musk's Twitter has finally flicked the little blue checks off of many of the accounts that had them. The checks previously indicated that an account had been «verified» to belong to the person it claimed to represent, and wasn't an imposter.
Starting today, blue checks primarily mean that a person has paid for Twitter Blue, an $8 per month subscription.
Some Twitter accounts that represent organizations, such as PC Gamer's account(opens in new tab), now have a gold check to indicate that they're affiliated with a paid «Twitter Verified Organizations» business account. It's also possible for individuals on Twitter to receive a blue checkmark through association with a paid, verified organization. The account of Xbox head Phil Spencer(opens in new tab), for instance, still has a blue check because «it's an affiliate of @Xbox on Twitter.»
Otherwise, blue checks indicate that a user has paid for Twitter Blue and verified their phone number, and that their account is more than 30 days old and in good standing. The complete «verification» guidelines can be read here(opens in new tab).
As a result of today's purge of «legacy» blue checkmarks, many formerly verified accounts that will be familiar from the gaming world no longer have them. A few examples:
The burdensome blue check has also been lifted from my shoulders—something the Pope(opens in new tab) and I now have in common—and I already feel lighter. If you also use Twitter to follow gaming news and announcements, however, you may find it more difficult to tell when you're looking at a legitimate source. Critics of the change have argued that it will lead to increased instances of impersonation, an idea
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