Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has lost his Twitter verification badge.
Gachagua, who boasts of over 550,000 followers on Twitter lost his badge on Sunday, April 9, 2023.
Initially, the Twitter verification mark of a blue checkmark indicated that the account holder is a notable figure in society such as a senior government official, a journalist or a public figure.
However, as from April 1, 2023, Twitter wound down the legacy verification program, beginning to remove verification checkmarks from the legacy accounts.
In place of the legacy verification programme, Twitter introduced Twitter Blue, a programme that would require users to pay for verification.
“Starting April 1, we’ll be winding down our legacy Verification program and accounts that were verified under the previous criteria (active, notable, and authentic) will not retain a blue checkmark unless they are subscribed to Twitter Blue. Subscribers will need to meet our eligibility criteria to receive or retain the blue checkmark,” Twitter said in a blog post.
“Only accounts actively subscribed to Twitter Blue are eligible to receive the blue checkmark.”
New qualifications for Twitter verification
For an account to qualify for Twitter Blue, it must have a display name and profile photo and must be active in the past 30 days.
The account must also be older than 30 days upon subscription and have a confirmed phone number.
The account must have no recent changes to the profile photo, display name, or username and must have no signs of being misleading or deceptive
According to Twitter, the account must have no signs of engaging in platform manipulation and spam
