John Paul M. Joaquin Tech 04.12.2023 05:Apr AM EDT

Twitter Could Remove Legacy Checkmarks on 4/20

Twitter's legacy checkmarks could be in trouble once again.

The Chief Twit himself, Elon Musk, recently announced that Twitter would once again be on its way to removing the many legacy checkmarks that remain on the platform after he took over in late 2022.

Twitter and Musk previously attempted to remove Twitter's legacy checkmarks, only to not follow through and delay it when it became clear that the company doesn't have the necessary workforce to remove them manually.

(Photo : STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Twitter 420 Legacy Checkmark Removal Details

Final date for removing legacy Blue checks is 4/20
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 11, 2023

Musk mentioned on his official Twitter account that the final date for Twitter to remove its legacy checkmarks would be on Apr. 20, commonly known as 4/20 due to it being a holiday for cannabis culture. Whether Musk is serious about this or not is uncertain; he has a penchant for making 4/20 references and jokes, according to Business Insider.

Regardless of that fact, many Twitter users who have legacy checkmarks will soon have to consider their options to keep being verified on Twitter again to avoid impersonation. You may recall that legacy checkmark owners could remain verified if they either pay for Twitter Blue or be affiliated with a verified organization to make them automatically verified.

This isn't the first time Musk announced that Twitter is removing its legacy checkmarks. He previously announced in late March that Twitter would remove its legacy checkmarks on Apr. 1 (also known as April Fool's Day)

Before that announcement, Musk announced shortly after his takeover of Twitter that he would eventually remove legacy checkmarks "in a few months" due to them being acquired "in a corupt and nonsensical" manner.

Since then, legacy blue checkmark owners kept seeing a pop-up when they check the checkmarks that notify them that the account they have is a legacy-verified account and that it may or may not be notable, per an earlier Tech Crunch report.

Why Musk Didn't Go Through On Apr. 1

Elon Musk quickly deleted a tweet saying legacy verified accounts would not lose their checkmarks on April 1 as he previously said, won’t happen for another “few weeks”

however, if they specifically say they won’t pay for Twitter Blue, then Twitter will remove their checkmark pic.twitter.com/HiiWwf30tb
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) April 2, 2023

However, The Washington Post's report mentioned that the company found that removing legacy checkmarks was mostly a manual process involving verification data saved in a spreadsheet. This process means there may be no way to remove legacy checkmarks from accounts in bulk, as Twitter mentioned it would do in late March.

Unfortunately, this meant that the company couldn't remove all of the legacy checkmarks in time for Apr. 1. To that effect, Musk tweeted that legacy verified accounts wouldn't lose their checkmarks on Apr. 1; though he quickly deleted the tweet, Matt Binder managed to take a screenshot of it before Musk deleted it.

With Twitter laying off most of its employees over the past few months, it's possible it couldn't manually remove legacy badges in time for their Apr. 1 removal.

However, it had been some time between late March and when Musk re-announced the removal of legacy checkmarks. Thanks to this period, it seems his announcement could mean that the company successfully did all the things to remove Twitter's legacy checkmarks with the workforce it has in time for Apr. 20.