Once is not custom, it’s the b***** on Twitter. For the past few days, it has been impossible to tell the difference between “certified” accounts, that is to say verified by the platform, and those who have subscribed to the paid Twitter Blue subscription, whose identity has not been validated. . And for good reason, they both display the same logo.
Because for several years, Twitter offered to (more or less) public figures a certification of their account, using a blue badge. In other words, the logo proved that the identity of the account owner had been verified and that it was not a spoof. This Saturday, April 1, was therefore (in theory) the end of “certified” accounts. The blue logo is now normally reserved for those who have completed Twitter Blue, a monthly subscription at 9.60 euros. This formula also allowed you to take advantage of additional features, such as reducing advertising or highlighting your tweets.
Blue badges for everyone
But spoiler alert: it didn’t exactly go as planned. While a large number of personalities – including certain media such as the New York Times – announced that they will not pay for the Twitter Blue subscription, no account seems to have lost its certification at the time of this writing. This is for example the case of that of our cultural journalist, Fabien Randane. Despite the fact that he did not take the subscription, the small blue logo still appears on his Twitter account. In practice, it is therefore currently impossible to differentiate “certified” badges from paid badges.
Conversely, the Twitter account of the New York Times, he no longer displays the blue logo. And for good reason, the American newspaper announced, on Sunday April 2, that it did not intend to “pay to maintain the certification of our official accounts” and that it would not reimburse its journalists who would like to do so for their own account in apart from cases “where it remains essential to the work” of the latter. It was enough to irritate Elon Musk.
A few hours later, the whimsical CEO of Twitter blew up the blue badge of the newspaper’s account, followed by 55 million subscribers, accusing the media of “propaganda”.
How to differentiate them?
Well, there are still some techniques to make the difference between those who are certified and those who have worn the moula. First, you can use a Twitter tool. On the social network, all certified accounts are followed by Twitter Verified.
Just go to the account you want to verify and search through its followers if Twitter Verified shows up. Those who do not appear there are therefore not certified. This is for example the case of our journalist Fabien Randanne, followed by this account.
The other technique is to download a Chrome or Firefox extension, called Eight Dollars, in reference to the price of the subscription. Once downloaded, you will see two logos appear.
The historic blue logo for “verified” accounts and a new one dollar logo for accounts that have subscribed to the Twitter Blue subscription.