Remember the days when a blue checkmark defined the authenticity of an account rather than who had deeper pockets? That all changed when Musk took over and started giving it away to anyone asking for it. But there’s still hope as Bluesky could be on its way to revive the authentic blue check only given to those who deserve one.
This news comes from a reverse engineer @alice.mosphere.at who shared a post discussing the upcoming changes coming to the platform. The Blue check feature was spotted in the Bluesky app’s public GitHub repository on Friday. By the looks of it, it will operate quite similarly to how Twitter used to distribute blue checks back in the day, but with a twist.
Bluesky will not only verify users as trusted accounts themselves, but also mark certain accounts as “trusted verifiers”. This gives them the authority to distribute a blue check to other authentic accounts on the platform. So, a mainstream publication can distribute blue checks to its correspondents and journalists.
Alice also shared snippets of the upcoming feature, showing what it would look like and appear on the app. From the preview, you can see that The New Your Times will be one of the first trusted verifiers. It also explains the hierarchy of trusted verifiers and verified accounts, and that you can tap on a blue check to see who offered them the verification.
Keeping in mind the open nature of the service, Bluesky will also implement a toggle to hide blue checks for those who prefer not to see them. The post mentions that we could see the feature surface as soon as April 21. But we haven’t heard any official words from Bluesky yet.
This is different from how X distributes blue checks, as anyone can have it if you get their subscription. This even allowed bot accounts to carry blue ticks. So I am quite pleased with what Bluesky is cooking here, bringing verification back to its roots. The platform is taking all the right steps, including adding a trending tab and an Explore page.
I am finally very warm about jumping over to Bluesky full-time. But what are your thoughts on the topic? Does the news of authentic blue checks sound like a step in the right direction, or do you feel they were better off without it? Start a discussion in the comments below and we’ll be happy to chime in.
Source: Beebom