UPDATE: I’ve revised some of the language used in this article to clarify that Twitter gave verification to 10,000 of the most followed organizations for free.
ORIGINAL STORY: X Corp. (which now owns Twitter as the original Twitter Inc. was merged into it) CEO Elon Musk previously announced that all legacy verification badges would be going away today, April 20th, 2023. Normally we wouldn’t report on something like this, however, it directly affects several of Nintendo’s official accounts. This includes the official North American accounts for @SplatoonNA and @animalcrossing.
It does appear that the @NintendoAmerica account, however, has access to Verified Organizations, which costs $1,000 USD a month to subscribe to and nets businesses the ability to add “affiliate” accounts (which Nintendo of America has not done as of writing) for an additional $50 per handle, plus a gold checkmark. It is unclear whether they pay for this, or if they’re one of the 10,000 most followed organizations who get it for free, at this time.
Previously, when Nintendo’s American branch changed the name of its YouTube Channel, it very similarly lost its verification badge (which as of writing, it has not regained).
