If you want to keep your blue tick on Twitter, you’ll have to hand over payment details in the next few days, according to Elon Musk.
The Twitter CEO has confirmed the final deadline for the company to remove ‘legacy’ blue ticks will be April 20 – just over a week away.
It’s believed the date is a sly reference to cannabis, which is associated with the number 420 because of the time of the day it is traditionally smoked.
Musk was famously filmed smoking the drug during a live webcast with comedian Joe Rogan back in 2018.
He tweeted the update and also confirmed the news in a ‘hastily-arranged’ bombshell interview with the BBC, in which he accused the interviewer of lying.
Musk tweeted the new update on Tuesday evening in a brief message: ‘Final date for removing legacy Blue checks is 4/20.’
Musk tweeted on Tuesday evening: ‘Final date for removing legacy Blue checks is 4/20.’
Twitter previously said April 1 would be when ‘legacy’ checkmarks would start to be removed – although many remained after this date, causing confusion.
On Twitter, the blue checkmark at the end of an account holder’s name used to indicate an account belonging to someone of public interest – such as a celebrity, politician or journalist.
The whole point of the blue checkmark was that it could verify a notable person’s identity and distinguish him or her from an imposter.
Under Musk’s ownership, however, the tick is now simply an indicator that an account is subscribed to Twitter Blue, the platform’s subscription service that costs up to £11 per month in the UK.
Twitter Blue gives subscribers access to several exclusive features such as custom app icons, the ability to undo a tweet immediately after posting it, and, for subscribers in certain countries, the ability to edit tweets.
Meanwhile, some features that have long been available on the free version of Twitter – such as voting in polls and SMS two-factor authentication – are soon becoming or have become exclusive to Twitter Blue.
It’s thought Musk – who purchased the social media network in October for $44 billion (£5 billion) – is trying to get Twitter’s userbase to start shelling out a monthly charge to boost profits.
April 20 is believed to be a reference to cannabis, which is associated with the number 420 because of the time of the day it is traditionally smoked, and in turn the date 4/20 (April 20). Musk was famously filmed smoking the drug during a live webcast with comedian Joe Rogan back in 2018 (pictured)
In the UK, Twitter Blue costs £9.60 per month for desktop and £11 for iOS and Android and adds a blue tick next to a user’s name, among other features
Musk has also rolled out new gold and grey ticks to indicate verified businesses and government bodies, respectively, and is charging £1,000 per month for them.
The South African-born entrepreneur has just given his biggest interview since taking over Twitter, with the BBC at Twitter HQ in San Francisco on Wednesday.
While discussing the subject of hate speech on Twitter, Musk accused BBC interviewer James Clayton of lying because he couldn’t back up his claims.
Musk also said Twitter had ‘four months to live’ if he didn’t make changes and cut costs to save it from bankruptcy.
The billionaire owner confirmed that about 80 per cent of its staff have been axed since he took over at the helm – including Twitter’s global communications team.
Any emails sent to [email protected] now get a poop emoji in reply, while Musk seems to have taken over the role of comms himself by tweeting regular updates.
Twitter has about 1,500 employees now, a sharp decline from ‘just under 8,000 staff members’ it had before he took it over in October.
Musk also revealed his takeover had been painful and that he has felt ‘under constant attack’, but that financially the company is finally breaking even.
And he revealed that he had taken to sleeping on a couch on the seventh-floor of the Twitter headquarters.
Also this week, Musk shut down the company that owned Twitter – Twitter Inc – and incorporated it into a company of his own, called X Corp.
The Twitter and Tesla boss appeared to allude to the news with a simple tweet containing the letter X.
X Corp is set to become the parent company for all of Musk’s endeavors, including SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink and an upcoming platform that he’s referred to as ‘an ‘everything app’.
This app could one day incorporate parts or all of Twitter, as well as online services and utilities such as ridesharing, food deliveries and more.
