The Waning Clout of Social Media Verification

When I got verified on Instagram in October 2020, my friends were very impressed. It felt like a big flex. The coveted symbol gave my account an aura of importance. 

But the significance of that checkmark has been going through a major upheaval across social media. The genesis of the shift, of course, comes from Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter last fall. Soon after, he decided he would begin charging users for checkmarks through its subscription service Twitter Blue. This week, Musk tweeted the “final date” for removing legacy checkmarks would be April 20. That deadline could change: users were supposed to start losing their badges at the start of this month, and for the most part, have not.