X, formerly Twitter, lets users hide once-vaunted blue check

Users on the social media platform X, previously generally known as Twitter, will now be allowed to cover their once-prized blue examine marks, the corporate says.

A coveted standing image at Twitter earlier than Elon Musk purchased the corporate, the blue checks have been mocked by some as an indication that the person is prepared to pay for particular therapy.

“As a subscriber, you can choose to hide your checkmark on your account,” an X assist web page mentioned on Wednesday.

“The checkmark will be hidden on your profile and posts.”

Blue ticks, lengthy free at Twitter, have been meant to sign the id of sure customers — comparable to journalists, celebrities and politicians — had been verified in an effort to construct belief within the platform.

But Musk decried that as a “lords & peasants system,” and opened up entry to the examine marks to anybody who paid for a Blue subscription — an $8 monthly program which provides customers entry to different particular options as nicely.

He rapidly put this system on a short lived maintain after issues with individuals shopping for tick marks and impersonating high-profile personalities, together with the tycoon himself.

In April, the eccentric billionaire then adopted by way of with a long-promised transfer to strip free blue ticks from Twitter customers.

Some praised the transfer as egalitarian whereas others decried it as being shaken down for cash to safeguard their standing on the platform.

Wordsmith Stephen King, who had beforehand vowed he would by no means cough up, even telling Musk that Twitter ought to as an alternative be paying him to submit, appeared horrified to find that he nonetheless had his blue examine.

Musk mentioned in response to a news article in regards to the examine marks on the time that he was “paying for a few personally,” and replied to King’s message with “You’re welcome namaste.”

Word that X Blue subscribers can attempt to disguise that truth prompted one person to fireside off a submit contending that Musk “destroyed a decade old symbol of trust and turned it into a mark of shame.”

A submit from the X account @ianvisits mentioned that “Blue ticks are now so toxic that you can hide the fact that you have one.”

Other paid-for options, comparable to posts longer 280 characters, should permit different customers to establish a Blue subscriber even when their blue tick has been hidden.

“The checkmark may still appear in some places and some features could still reveal you have an active subscription,” X mentioned at its assist web page. — Agence France-Presse