Musk: Twitter's Legacy Blue Checks 'Corrupt, Nonsensical'

Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who recently characterized the company he purchased for $44 billion as a "crime scene," teased future revelations about the verified blue checkmark process and labeled the way accounts were previously verified as "corrupt."

"In a few months, we will remove all legacy blue checks," Musk tweeted Monday. "The way in which they were given out was corrupt and nonsensical."

The corruption reference could be tied to a past acknowledgment from Musk in which activists seeking to be verified on Twitter paid bribes up to $15,000 for verification on the platform, prior to Musk buying the company.

Twitter potentially charging users $15,000 in bribes to verify accounts, but then giving away verification badges to government officials could loosely be considered political corruption. But Musk has not offered any specific details on his acknowledgment that insiders at Twitter were allegedly demanding thousands of dollars to verify accounts.

Musk relaunched a subscription service for Twitter on Monday, after a first attempt saw an embarrassing spate of fake accounts.

Last month's initial try came just 10 days after Musk's $44 billion takeover of the influential platform and a mass round of layoffs that saw company staff levels halved, including teams of workers moderating content.

The relaunch of Twitter Blue comes as the Tesla and SpaceX owner has stepped up his tweets endorsing right-wing causes, including opposition to the use of gender-neutral pronouns and the U.S. government's response to COVID-19.

The subscription service costs $8 per month for users accessing Twitter on the web, and $11 if signing up on an Apple device. The extra price could be explained by Musk's anger that Apple charges up to 30% service fee on its app store.

The initial rollout of Twitter Blue caused an uproar when many fake accounts popped up pretending to be celebrities or companies and Musk's team was forced to pull the plug on the scheme.

Also, Twitter users pointed out Musk's own account, when hovering over his own blue check, trolled the CEO for having a legacy account that may or may not be "notable."

In the present, the company beefed up its verification procedure with a review required by Twitter before receiving the coveted blue checkmark.

The checkmark will become gold for businesses and, later in the week, gray for government organizations, it added.

A blue checkmark on an account, which indicates it has been verified by Twitter, was previously free but reserved for organizations and public figures in an attempt to avoid impersonation and misinformation.

According to the site, new subscriptions to Twitter Blue were currently available on web only in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K., "with plans to expand."

Since his takeover, content moderation has proved to be a major headache for Musk, who has described himself as a free speech absolutist and vowed to end most forms of censorship on the site.

The billionaire's commitment to free speech has spooked away major advertisers, caught the attention of regulators and briefly challenged the company's access to the Apple app store.

Musk believes that the previous ownership of Twitter held a strong left-wing and pro-LGBTQ bias and unfairly banned accounts, including that of former President Donald Trump.

Musk also lashed out Sunday against the outgoing key adviser for the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a frequent target of vitriol.

Musk posted a meme showing Fauci telling President Joe Biden, "Just one more lockdown, my king..."

Early in the pandemic, Musk tweeted concern over the virus was "dumb" and since taking over Twitter has removed its policy targeting COVID misinformation.

Information from Reuters was used in this report.

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