Twitter said on March 24 that it will begin removing old blue checkmarks from user accounts on April 1, as part of a subscription effort to wind down its legacy verified programme.

This move comes as Elon Musk’s social media company, Twitter, spreads its subscription programme, Twitter Blue, around the world.

To be clear, this shift has been planned for some time, with Musk saying in a December 2022 tweet that they will remove the legacy blue checks in a few months.

Twitter has stated that it intends to limit SMS-based two-factor authentication mode to Twitter Blue subscribers.

Users who want to keep their blue checkmarks on Twitter after April 1 must join up for a Twitter Blue subscription, according to the firm. Twitter had around 420,000 verified accounts prior to this update.

Companies and organisations will have to join up for the much more expensive ‘Verified for Organizations’ service, which starts at $1,000 per month.

Twitter also revealed intentions to limit SMS-based two-factor authentication. If the account is for a business or a non-profit, it will have a gold checkmark and a square avatar.

For an extra $50 per month per affiliate account, organisations can affiliate any individual or entity linked with them.

A connected account gets the verification mark as well as an affiliate emblem (a little representation of their parent company’s profile picture) next to their checkmark.

Twitter Blue is a crucial initiative for the firm to diversify its revenue streams beyond advertising. Musk told colleagues in November 2022 that he wanted at least half of the company’s revenue to come from subscriptions, reducing the social media firm’s reliance on advertising.