White House Refuses to Pay $8 for Twitter Verification as Billions go to Ukraine

The White House will not cover the cost of verifying the official Twitter profiles for its staff.

The decision comes in the wake of Elon Musk’s announcement that Twitter will start removing legacy verified check marks and offering verification only to those who pay for it using Twitter Blue, the platform’s new subscription service. It costs a grand total of $8 a month.

While celebrities and government officials have long relied on Twitter’s verification system to protect their accounts from being impersonated, Twitter’s decision to charge for verification has raised concerns about who will be able to afford the cost of verification and who will not, such as the Biden administration.

It is worth noting that the US has allocated significant funds towards Ukraine since President Biden took office. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Department of Defense reported that the United States has given over $30 billion in aid to Ukraine.

Internally, White House director of digital strategy, Rob Flaherty, has confirmed to White House that they will not be enrolling in the new verification system. Flaherty told staffers in an email sent on Friday afternoon. “It is our understanding that Twitter Blue does not provide person-level verification as a service. Thus, a blue check mark will now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user.”

He continued, “Twitter’s enterprise service, Verification for Organization, does appear to provide organization-association verification. There are ongoing trials for the program that we are monitoring, but we will not enroll in it.”

The White House has emphasized the importance of verification in allowing its staff to communicate with the public on behalf of the administration. The combination of verification with designated Twitter profiles helps ensure that the public can trust the messages being conveyed. However, with the cost of verification now being passed on to users, it remains unclear how this will affect the ability of government officials and others to communicate with their audience on Twitter.