#BlockTheBlue trending on Twitter as users begin campaign to block Twitter Blue subscribers

#BlockTheBlue, a new movement on Twitter is seeing some high-profile users campaign against Elon Musk’s new Twitter Blue subscription, which gives any paying user a blue verification checkmark, with #BlockTheBlue campaigners blocking Twitter Blue subscribers in protest of users paying to receive the platforms blue badge.

The hashtag #BlockTheBlue is now trending on the platform, with campaigners on a witch-hunt for users with a blue checkmark, which signifies they are subscribed to pay-monthly for Twitter Blue.

Before Elon Musk’s turbulent acquisition of Twitter, blue verification badges symbolised accounts that had provided information to verify they were genuine and represented the company or individual they claimed they did.

However, as part of Musk’s rampant effort to monetise the platform after his $44 billion buyout, Twitter is now allowing any user worldwide to subscribe and pay to show the platform’s blue verification checkmark on their profile, as well as access other paywalled features including the ability to post higher-resolution 1080p videos, share longer tweets, Edit Tweet and Undo Tweet options, and more.

Twitter had removed the blue badge from all non-paying accounts earlier this week, forcing users who had lost their badge to subscribe to Twitter Blue however, data revealed that in the hours after the platform started to remove the iconic blue verification badge, only 28 out of the 407,000 ‘legacy’ verified accounts had subscribed to the pay-monthly Twitter Blue subscription to keep their blue checkmark.