On April Fool’s Day, Twitter says it will get rid of check badges for non-paying users, but it doesn’t seem like a joke.

Journalists, celebrities and other public figures who haven’t paid for their badge may see the blue check disappear from their accounts after Saturday, but some verified users with large accounts on the platform say they aren’t worried about losing their status, nor are they planning to. leave the site once your logo disappears.

«I really don’t think anything will change because I will continue to use Twitter the same way,» said Meecham Whitson Meriweather, who goes through @MediumSizeMeech on the platform and tweets about pop culture to her more than 48,000 followers. “I think deverification will go extremely well. It might be chaotic for the first week, maybe, but otherwise I think it’ll be fine.»

After billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter in October and made major staff cuts, the site experienced glitches and, in some cases, chaotic implementations, such as the Twitter Blue program. Twitter Blue is the $8 monthly paid premium subscription now offered by the platform, which gives users a blue verification badge and other features, such as the ability to edit a post. Organizations will be able to pay $1,000 per month for verification badges.

Previously, the platform provided verification on Twitter at no cost for accounts they deemed worthy of mention. When paid verification first launched last year, the service was temporarily halted after users began impersonating celebrities, politicians and big-name brands.

With the «legacy» verification badges scheduled to go extinct on Saturday, some have wondered if the site would fall into disarray once more. Many meme the moment, lamenting (jokingly) that they would soon join the ranks of Twitter «regulars.»

“I loved getting my blue check to lord over all my friends and I can’t wait to lose it,” said one person. tweeted.

Another wrote: «I will soon lose my blue mark and the last vestige of respectability on these cursed shores.»

Still, some verified users told NBC News that they don’t expect this change to completely derail the platform or cause an exodus.

“As we’ve seen with Elon, there will probably be a lot of confusion if this happens. This may not even happen,» said Philip Lewis, a senior editor at HuffPo with more than 316,000 followers who spends @Phil_Lewis_.

Thursday, The New York Times reported that the platform will make an exception for some of its largest organizations and advertisers, which will be allowed to keep legacy verification badges. The 10,000 most followed organizations and the top 500 advertisers on the site would keep their badges at no cost, the Times reported. Otherwise, organizations outside of the top 10,000 are expected to pay $1,000 per month to remain verified.

Molly Jong-Fast, who tweets about current affairs and politics to her more than 1 million followers and spends @MollyJongFast, called the idea of ​​paying for a verification platform “perverse”. She hypothesized that the motivation behind the badge removal is not to stifle bots on the platform, as Musk previously claimed, but to improve Twitter’s profit margin.

“The idea here now is that if you want to have the privilege of appearing or being able to interact with a site built with free content, from writers and artists, you have to pay the tech company,” Jong-Fast said. «These are the best of the brightest, and they still can’t figure out how to, you know, make a media company work, which I think is pretty interesting.»

Some on Twitter have already experienced deverification, either because they created new accounts or violated Twitter’s community guidelines, and continued to use the platform on unverified accounts. Podcast host Ira Madison III, who was previously suspended from Twitter and now tweets on an unverified account, joked about the rush of users mourning the imminent loss of his verified credentials.

“Not these compliments on your blue check…” he tweeted.

Those who spoke to NBC News were divided on whether they would consider paying for their verification credential.

“I won’t buy Twitter Blue,” Rex Chapman, who tweets about pop culture and current events to his more than 1.2 million followers and overlooks. @RexChapmanhe wrote in a direct message to NBC News.

Lewis, however, said he would consider paying to ensure his work continues to reach a wide audience. On Twitter, those who have already subscribed to Twitter Blue are frequently mocked for paying for what some consider a status symbol. Lewis said he personally doesn’t think it’s anything to be ashamed of.

Meriweather said he believes verified badges have already lost some of their cache by implementing paid verification.

“It sounds so fun and elitist to say this, but when anyone can get this signifier, it really loses its value,” he said.

Meriweather said she doesn’t worry about copycats when she loses her blue check mark. He believes that his followers know that there is only one person with his voice and sense of humor. For now, he’s sticking with Twitter no matter how chaotic the site gets.

“I will go down with the ship,” he said.