'No choice but to remove': Elon Musk confirms verified users' blue ticks to be junked

Twitter's new owner Elon Musk on Thursday reiterated that legacy blue tick verification will be done away with in the coming month as "far too many corrupt blue verification checkmarks exist" on the microblogging site.

Twitter is in the process of rolling out the subscription package and it is experiencing some glitches while putting the new system in place. 

Today, a user asked Musk if he can fix the weird glitch in the verification badge. She said when she signed up for Blue to try the new features, it took away her actual verification and "now says I am verified because I signed up for Blue". "Which is not the case. I’ve been verified for years," she tweeted. 

Responding to her, the Twitter CEO said: "Far too many corrupt legacy Blue “verification” checkmarks exist, so no choice but to remove legacy Blue in coming months."

Musk on Wednesday said that please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in the coming months and will keep what works and change what doesn’t.

Earlier, the blue tick on Twitter was free of cost. But Musk, after taking over the company in a $44 billion deal, has rolled out a subscription package under which users have to pay $8 per month to get the blue tick. Those who already have it will lose if they don't pay.  

On November 1, Musk in a series of tweets criticised the existing verification process and called said: "Twitter's current lords and peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bull****".

He then announced $8 per month charge for the blue tick and said subscribers will get priority in replies, mentions and searches, which is essential to defeating spam/scam. 

The Twitter boss also said that those with subscriptions will get to post long videos and audio with half as many ads. "And paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us," he said. 

Musk said there will be a secondary tag below the name for someone who is a public figure, which is already the case for politicians.