SOCIAL MEDIA
What is the ‘Block the Blue’ Twitter campaign?
Twitter users are banding together to push back against paid verification by blocking accounts of people using Twitter blue.
Twitter users have begun to rally around the hashtag ‘#BlockTheBlue’ in an attempt to pushback against the new verification system that has been implemented over the last six months.
Twitter users who were ‘legacy verified’, that is have a verfication on Twitter’s old verification process, lost their blue tick mark on 20 April, leaving only those who pay the $8 monthly fee as those with blue verification marks.
The move by new Twitter CEO Elon Musk to make the sweeping change has been criticised widely. The original verification process was a way to determine news outlets, journalists, and celebrities veracity. Now, anyone can be verified leaving journalists essentially to be deplatformed as well as organisations needing to pay big fees to qualify for the new gold badge.
Celebrities like LeBron James and Stephen King have had verification given to them without paying, while Cristiano Ronaldo’s account is unverified.
There are up to about 630,000 subscribers to Twitter Blue at present, according to researcher Travis Brown.
How is #BlockTheBlue identifying verified users?
Since the beginning of March, the blue check mark was changed to indicate that it was given to a legacy account or a paying subscriber, with no note of which. However, the change on 20 April means only those who paid remain, making users an easy target.
“99% of twitter blue guys are dead-eyed cretins who are usually trying to sell you something stupid and expensive, and now they want to pay a monthly subscription fee to boost their dog shit posts front and center,” Twitter user @dril told Mashable. @dril’s account has 1.7 million followers. Last month it was reported that Musk wanted 35 accounts to have a special promotion to other users, which included President Joe Biden, LeBron James, and @dril.
Shortly after the #BlockTheBlue hashtag began to gain traction, the site suspended the @BlockTheBlue account.
Whether the movement will have any serious impact is unknown but unlikely. A mass exodus of the biggest celebrities and brands might enable a change, but a mass blocking would not.