Twitter CEO and business mogul Elon Musk tweeted on Tuesday that the social media platform will relaunch its Twitter Blue verification service on Tuesday, November 29. This development comes after Musk initially said that it will return by the "end of next week."
Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022
When asked by a Twitter user if Twitter will let people change their names once they verify, Musk replied with "With [the] new release, changing your verified name will cause loss of checkmark until name is confirmed by Twitter to meet Terms of Service."
Musk was also asked if legacy checkmarks for non-corporate/government officials are going away. He replied with "All unpaid legacy Blue checkmarks will be removed in a few months."
Twitter’s verified checkmark was originally only used to authenticate high-profile accounts like politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures. It was then made available to everyone for $8 a month under the new Twitter Blue subscription after Musk took ownership of the platform. This was his move to make the service become more profitable and give "power to the people."
But last Friday, Twitter paused the subscription service after people exploited their verified checkmarks to impersonate companies and politicians and post inappropriate content. For instance, a fake Nintendo of America account posted a picture of Mario giving the dirty finger, while a fake LeBron James account tweeted a request for a trade.
Source: Elon Musk on Twitter