In a surprising move, prominent gaming and gaming adjacent companies such as PlayStation, Nvidia, AMD, and Epic Games have lost their Gold Checkmarks on Twitter as part of the platform’s recent verification overhaul. Other companies, including Nintendo of America and Xbox, have managed to retain their marks. The Gold Checkmark is meant to indicate that an account belongs to an official organization.
The social media giant launched its “Blue for Business” plan on December 19, displaying company profile pictures in a square with a gold checkmark. Twitter recently went through with the plan that all legacy verified accounts would be removed on April 20, and users would need to subscribe to Twitter Blue to receive a checkmark. The subscription costs $8 per month and offers additional features, such as editing tweets, but does not verify a user’s identity.
Following the changes, some organizations now sport a gold checkmark with a square profile picture to signify their official status. Government officials have a grey checkmark by their names, while government organizations are identified by a square profile picture and a grey checkmark.
An email shared by Matt Navarra suggests that accounts spending $1,000 per month on the platform are eligible for gold checkmarks. This could imply that companies without checkmarks may not have been advertising on Twitter. The email outlined Twitter’s new verification strategy aimed at enhancing user experience and reducing fraudulent accounts and bots.
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