A glitch on Twitter is allowing formerly verified legacy accounts to temporarily reinstate their old blue checkmarks without having to subscribe to Twitter Blue.
Users began noticing the issue this week while editing their profiles. Many suggested that typing specific phrases into their bios would cause the blue checkmark to reappear.
“I just wrote ‘former blue check’ in my bio and then a blue check appeared next to my name,” one user wrote. “I deleted it bc it weirded me out but… coding error? Will someone else try this.”
In numerous other examples, users experimented with different phrases while attempting to get their old checkmarks back.
“Adding ‘former blue check’ to my bio caused a blue check to appear. ‘Legacy blue check’ also worked. ‘Ex blue check’ did not,” another explained. “Everything is cool and normal here at twitter dot com.”
The Daily Dot similarly added “former blue check” to an account that had previously been verified as a journalist and also witnessed a blue check appear.
“This account is verified because it’s notable in government, news, entertainment, or another designated category,” the legacy check mark says.
Yet no specific phrase seems to actually cause the issue. Merely editing one’s profile in any way, such as adding a period, makes the blue check symbol emerge.
The Daily Dot also confirmed that the blue check is only visible to the user and not others on the platform. Once a user refreshes their profile, the blue check disappears as well.
While a minor error, many have pointed to the issue as evidence of the platform’s downfall since being purchased by Elon Musk.
On April 20, Musk began removing legacy blue check marks from the accounts of high-profile accounts in order to incentivize users to pay for a blue checkmark instead. The decision has caused an influx of impersonation accounts and even saw one account with the N-word in its handle receiving verification.
