When a hack briefly disabled blue check Twitter users, unverifieds threw a boisterous meme party

By Starr Rhett Rocque

Unverified Twitter accounts had a glorious moment early Wednesday evening when verified accounts couldn’t tweet for a spell. It started when Twitter blocked access to blue check accounts shortly after a hack affected several high-profile users, including politicians and celebrities, in what may have been a Bitcoin scam and data breach. The hackers posted messages from accounts belonging to Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, and more, making claims about a BTC wallet. 

What transpired next made unverified accounts gloriously happy because they had free rein to tweet without the clutter of verified opinions. 

So far, there has been a public awakening this year—unlike anything most of us have seen in our lifetimes—where people are paying more attention to the inequities that exist in the world. In the case of Twitter, something we’ve known all along was finally realized: It’s a very divided place. 

Sure, there are subsets of Twitter based on cultures, hobbies, and interests, but the real tale of two Twitters lies in the story of blue check vs. unverified, and that became clear last night. Unverified Twitter went into a frenzy with jokes about blue checks not being able to tweet while the folks at Twitter were getting a handle on the hacking situation. 

They made it clear that Twitter was a glorious place without the verifieds. And of course, they expressed how amazing it felt to tweet freely, without algorithms and blue check opinions stifling their voices.

It was marvelous, albeit fleeting, for the unverifieds to pretend for a moment that they don’t secretly enjoy arguing with blue checks.

Take a look at how everything played out below. 

It started with the realization that something was different

Then the fun really heated up

But all good things must come to an end

 

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