Opinion | The great Twitter cull looms for leaders and organizations

Several hundred governments, world leaders and international organizations are set to lose their verification as Twitter pulls the plug on legacy blue check marks.

Some 420,000 legacy verified Twitter accounts were slated to be demoted on the platform, including more than 300 accounts of heads of state and government, foreign ministers, and their institutions, as well as some 40 major international organizations and their leaders.

Among the 1,160 Twitter accounts of heads of state, government and foreign ministers tracked by DigiTips 🧞 only 684 were verified as of Wednesday, and among these only 374 had been switched to the grey badge, which is free of charge.

Among the leaders and institutions that risked losing verification were Pope Francis (@Pontifex), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the U.K. Cabinet Office, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

The same went for international organizations such as the African Union, League of Arab States, International Committee of the Red Cross, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, World Economic Forum and WWF to name but a few.

From royals to organizations

Twitter said that on Thursday it would move ahead with its plans – about three weeks later than previously announced – for removing thousands of the legacy verification check marks that politicians, journalists and celebrities got for free.

Over the past several weeks Twitter has converted the old blue check marks into grey check marks for selected governments, multilateral organizations, and officials. However, it seemed that many governments and important international organizations had been left out.

In total seven royal accounts, 40 presidential accounts, 106 governmental accounts, 136 foreign ministries and foreign ministers and 79 international organizations and their leaders stand to lose the precious blue tick. And 470 accounts of world leaders were still not verified.

In a message to partners, Twitter offered free verification including five affiliate accounts. It was unclear, however, whether this offer had been extended to governments and international organizations.

Russia has 'a few avatar ideas'

The U.S. State Department was the only foreign ministry so far that opted for the affiliate verification system, using it for all 377 U.S. embassies and ambassadors. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele was the first world leader to have created an affiliate verification.

Giving the difficulties of obtaining verification in past years, a handful of African leaders recently subscribed to @TwitterBlue including Congo's President Denis Sassou-Nguesso and Foreign Minister Sylvie Baïpo-Temon.

Governments and multilateral organizations can apply for the free grey badge, but it seemed that not everyone had done so – or their applications weren't processed yet. The grey badge verification gives the same perks as paying Twitter Blue subscribers, including longer tweets, longer videos and priority ranking in replies.

Twitter verification is essential to avoid impersonation and the spread of fake news, especially for official governmental accounts.

After having angered key advertisers and antagonized media organizations and journalists alike, billionaire Elon Musk was on a collision course with world leaders and international organizations that have relied on Twitter for more than a decade to reach their citizens.

Musk, who completed his US$44 billion takeover of Twitter last October, did not seem to be afraid of any governments or leaders complaining.

“I haven’t had direct complaints to me. I have had sort of like some indirect complaints," he told Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson in an interview aired on Tuesday.

"I think people are a little concerned about complaining to me directly in case I tweet about it," he added with a laugh about the actions he'd taken since he bought Twitter.

So far, world leaders have been mum about the changes on the platform and few have publicly mentioned him on Twitter, with one notable exception: Russia's Foreign Ministry, which had some suggestions for the Twitter logo.

This story, which has been updated with additional details, was originally published by Digitips.ch on LinkedIn, and has been slightly edited.