Chrome extension ‘Eight Dollars’ allows Twitter users to segregate verified and paid accounts

Twitter has begun winding down legacy verified programme (Reuters file image)

‘Eight Dollars’, an extension available on the Google Chrome web browser, allows Twitter users on the desktop to segregate verified and paid accounts on the microblogging website.

The extension has been ironically named Eight Dollars, which is the price levied by Twitter for granting the blue verification badge to the paid accounts.

The paid form of verification was introduced by Twitter in November last year, shortly after billionaire Elon Musk took over the social media company.

In its latest update, the Twitter information page notes that “we’ll be winding down our legacy verified program and accounts that were verified under the previous criteria (active, notable and authentic) will not retain a blue checkmark unless they are subscribed to Twitter Blue.”

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Since April 1, on clicking the verification badge beside the verified accounts, Twitter is displaying the following message: “This is a legacy verified account and may or may not be notable.”

Earlier till March 31, the company used to display one of the following three messages on clicking the blue badge: 1. This is a legacy verified account and may or may not be notable. 2. This account is verified because it's notable in government, news, entertainment or another designated category. 3. This is an account that subscribes to Twitter Blue.

With Twitter blurring the lines between legacy verified accounts and paid verified handles, the Eight Dollars extension provides the solution to segregate them for now, social media users point out. The extension can be downloaded via the updated version of Google Chrome on the desktop.