These days, blue ticks on TikTok are not only a way of authenticating your identity but also a status symbol. Which is why some creators were miffed after discovering this month that TikTok had removed their verification checkmarks, seemingly without an explanation.
NBC noted that dozens of accounts with at least 1 million followers were allegedly affected. Some creators, like Dr. Miami and the official Duolingo account, later ended up getting their blue checks back. Others, like Bethenny Frankel and FaZe Rug, remain without them.
In a video, Frankel joked that without a checkmark, she was now a “loser,” as she noted that Joe Jonas and Lance Bass were also among those who are now checkmark-less.
“We are going to start a TikTok account together and see if together we’re verified,” she joked in the video. Since that video was posted, Bass and Jonas both have their checkmarks back.
FaZe Rug, on the other hand, seemed a little less bothered by it, saying in a video caption that having no TikTok checkmark was “the wave.”
The reason behind these check mark losses are unknown. At the time of writing, TikTok’s website maintains that to be verified, creators need to be active, authentic and notable. TikTok did not respond to our request for comment via email in time for publication.
Further reading:
- TikTok Is Generating Scarily Realistic AI Avatars of Creators for Ads
- U.S. Court Sets September Court Date for Legal Challenges to TikTok Ban
- Elon Musk’s New Twitter Verified Policy Leaves Small Creators With an Impossible Choice
- Meta Verified Launch Sparks Debate Among Creators, Drawing Comparisons to the Controversial Launch of Twitter Blue
