X Premium Users Will No Longer Be Able to Hide Their Checkmarks

X has started notifying Premium members that they will soon no longer be able to hide the blue verified checkmarks on their profiles. (via Engadget). The change comes just a couple of days after X started giving free Premium subscriptions to accounts with large audiences, whether they want that blue checkmark or not.

The Twitter/X blue checkmark used to indicate that a notable and active account had been verified by humans as authentic. However, after Elon Musk took over the company, the blue checkmark became something that any active Twitter/X users could get by paying for X Premium. The problem is, a lot of X accounts with a blue checkmark have been showing some toxic traits.

It probably doesn’t help that posts from X Premium members get a visibility boost on the platform. Moreover, X launching an ads revenue sharing program for Premium users may have been encouraging some to post controversial takes.

The result of the blue checkmark losing its original meaning is that some users may now see it as a badge of shame or a sign of support for Elon Musk. The platform was apparently aware of that since it allowed X Premium users to hide that checkmark if they wanted, but that’s soon going away.

X Premium does offer useful features such as access to X Pro (formerly TweetDeck) and the ability to edit posts. However, users will now need to accept having that blue checkmark on their profiles, and that also applies to all the trolls who’ve been hiding their checkmarks until now.