On April 20th, as Twitter finally lived up to its longstanding promise to abolish legacy verified accounts, many users started categorizing the last remaining “blue checks.” There were the Elon fanboys, who angrily badgered formerly verified users about their unwillingness to pay $8 a month for a new checkmark. There were sheepish Twitter Blue subscribers who appreciated its extra features. There were celebrities puzzled to find they’d retained their verification despite (or, sometimes, because) of their vocal unwillingness to pay for Twitter Blue.
But there was also another, far less discussed group. When I clicked the Verified tab in my mentions, I’d once been greeted with a variety of journalist friends, activists, and the odd…
