Elon Musk says he's getting rid of Twitter's old verified checkmark on accounts

Elon Musk took to his personal Twitter account to announce new features for the platform. These features are aimed at encouraging users to sign up for Twitter Blue.

The Twitter CEO announced on February 4 that, effective immediately, Twitter will begin sharing advertising revenue with creators for ads that appear in their reply threads. This ad-revenue-sharing feature is only eligible for accounts that have purchased Twitter Blue. While that feature is certainly welcomed by creators, one YouTuber asked Musk a question regarding accounts that received a verification checkmark before Musk took over the company and overhauled Twitter Blue.

Previously, Twitter accounts that were given the verified checkmark indicated the account was a public person, or a notable figure. Now, Musk has changed the system and hands out a verification checkmark to accounts paying for Twitter Blue. The YouTuber asked, "I'm curious, if an account was verified before Twitter Blue, then signs up for Blue, then eventually unsubscribes down the road, does that account keep its previous verified status? I suspect this unknown scares older accounts from jumping into Blue."

Musk replied to this question by saying, "Twitter's legacy Blue Verified is unfortunately deeply corrupted, so will sunset in a few months."

This isn't the first time Musk has fired shots at Twitter's previous criteria for verification checkmarks, as it was only in November last year that the Twitter CEO confirmed that some Twitter employees were being paid under the table to provide non-eligible accounts with verification checkmarks. These under-the-table payments went for upwards of $15,000 per checkmark.

• Read more: Elon Musk agrees Twitter staff privately sold verification for more than $15,000