Twitter users who have had the scarlet letter of a checkmark pinned to their profile against their wishes may soon be able to have it removed. They may soon see a page telling them how to cancel the subscription.
According to researcher Nima Owji, the company is set to add a page to its app that tells affected users they can contact Twitter support to cancel Blue. Twitter no longer has a communications team that can be reached for comment.
#Twitter is adding a page that tells the people with the complimentary Twitter Blue that they can cancel their subscription by contacting support. pic.twitter.com/v7Mqb2A4mt
— Nima Owji (@nima_owji) April 26, 2023
As it had long been promising, Twitter last week finally removed checkmarks from all of the accounts that were verified through the previous system because of their notability if they hadn't already subscribed to Blue. However, Twitter and its owner Elon Musk added blue checkmarks back to certain accounts anyway, namely ones that belong to celebrities (including some dead folks) or have more than a million users.
The likes of Lil Nas X, Bette Midler and Stephen King said they didn't pay for Blue even though they had a checkmark. The icon appeared on the accounts of several dead celebrities as well. Musk suggested that he was trolling some users by putting the checkmark back on their accounts.
However, some users suggested that, in doing so, Twitter and Musk may have violated the Lanham Act, a US federal law that prohibits false endorsement. It could be argued that by having a checkmark on their account without paying for Blue, users may tacitly appear to be endorsing it.
Offering clear directions to users who never wanted Blue in the first place on how to cancel their subscription may come as small comfort, especially for those who've found themselves on the wrong side of the #BlockTheBlue trend. Still, it remains unclear how deceased celebrities like Norm Macdonald, Chadwick Boseman and Kobe Bryant are supposed to have the checkmark removed, unless their families check their Twitter account settings on the regular.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitter-may-soon-tell-users-with-a-free-blue-subscription-how-to-cancel-it-200455042.html?src=rss
