The White House has decided not to pay for Twitter Blue, a subscription service that offers various perks including exclusive features and access to support, according to an Axios report.
On Friday, White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty informed staff via email that they would have to pay for the subscription out of their own pockets, as Twitter Blue does not provide person-level verification. Flaherty added that the blue check mark would now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user. While the guidance doesn’t apply to government agencies, other departments and agencies may be given similar directives in the future.
White House officials use their verified accounts to communicate information on behalf of the administration, and the verification process helps ensure that the messages are authentic and trusted by the public. However, Twitter has decided to shut down its legacy verified program, removing blue checkmarks from accounts that don’t sign up for its Twitter Blue service, which costs $8 per month.
The changes will take effect from April 1. Official organizations such as the White House and some government officials will continue to have grey check mark verification, according to Twitter.
The verified account feature was introduced in 2009 to help users identify the genuine accounts of celebrities, politicians, companies and brands, news organizations, and other accounts ‘of public interest’.
Twitter did not previously charge for the service, but after Elon Musk took over the company in October 2022, he described the old verification system as ‘corrupt.’ In November, he tweeted that ‘far too many corrupt legacy Blue ‘verification’ checkmarks exist, so no choice but to remove legacy Blue in coming months.’
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