X (Twitter) allowing users to hide their paid-for verification badge

X, formally Twitter, has added the option for subscribers of its pay-monthly Blue service to hide their paid-for blue badge, which has become a meaningless symbol used to mock users who pay for Twitter.

Before Elon Musk’s turbulent acquisition of Twitter last year, 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.

In an update to the X app, the platform is now giving users the ability to hide their blue badge, which is applied by default to the accounts of all users who subscribe to Blue.

lon Musk turbulently took over the former Twitter brand in October 2022 and has since made many high-profile, and often controversial, changes to the service including loosened content moderation, a push to pay-wall some once-popular features and capabilities, changes to the verification system, and a full renaming of the platform to X, which Musk intends to become an “everything app” like WeChat, a Chinese platform for messaging, voice and video calls, social media posts, mini-programs, payment services, and more.