Elon Musk's '4/20' deadline is here: Twitter to remove legacy Blue ticks starting today?

It is April 20 today and all of Twitter’s legacy Blue ticks are expected to be removed, as the microblogging platform's chief executive officer Elon Musk had announced in a tweet on April 11.

"Final date for removing legacy Blue checks is 4/20," Musk tweeted.



Musk’s chosen date to remove legacy Blue ticks, ‘4/20’ is not the first time the Twitter CEO has shown his affinity towards the number ‘420’, a slang term used in cannabis culture for marijuana consumption.

According to a WSJ report, the Tesla CEO’s offer price for Twitter of $54.20 could also be a veiled reference to the same. Musk also got into trouble with the SEC in 2018 when he joked about taking Tesla private at $420 per share.

Also read | ETtech Explainer: Past, present and future of the Twitter Blue Tick

“Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.” Musk wrote in a tweet.


Musk has already removed the legacy Blue tick for news publication New York Times. The Tesla CEO’s Twitter was also in the news earlier this month when US-based National Public Radio (NPR) quit the platform after Twitter slapped it with a ‘government funded media’ tag.

NPR became the first major news organisation to do so after Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter late last year.

“NPR will no longer actively maintain its flagship Twitter (@NPR) or any other official NPR accounts, and we are officially deemphasising Twitter across the organisation,” the media company said in a statement.


Last month, Twitter said it would winding down the legacy verification programme and accounts that were verified under the previous criteria will not retain a blue checkmark unless they are subscribed to Twitter Blue, starting April 1.

On April 2, Twitter changed the language in the description of verified users to read, "This account is verified because it's subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account" -- which means users can't tell who is paying for a blue check-mark and who isn't.

The social media platform is making the switch to paid verification in order to generate much-needed revenue for Twitter.

The service launched in India on February 8, available for a monthly fee of Rs 650 on the web and Rs 900 on mobile devices. This works out to Rs. 7,800 per year on the web and Rs. 10,800 per year on mobile devices. Twitter users, though, can avail a discount of 12% and get the service for Rs 9,400 per year.

On February 10, ET had reported that Twitter users in India largely gave a thumbs down to Twitter Blue, saying the prices were steep by Indian standards. Users had said the blue checkmark had little value-add beyond ‘bragging rights’. However, public figures and organizations stand to benefit from the premium offering, experts had said.