Elon Musk vows legacy check marks will be gone on 4/20, but he has a history of missed deadlines

The chief Twit says the social media company will do away with verified checks on April 20, a.k.a. 4/20, the favorite date of weed fans and a longtime punchline for Musk. It could be the end for the disjointed transition from verified check marks to purchased Twitter Blue. Then again, we’ve seen several deadlines come and go under Musk’s reign.

Most recently, Twitter pledged that it would wind down the legacy verified program on April 1, but that date came and went. Instead of deleting all legacy blue check marks, the company instead merged the description for both to read the same thing: “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.”

The following day, Musk Tweeted (then quickly deleted) that the company had opted for a grace period of “a few weeks.”

Deadlines have never been Musk’s strong suit, though. Here are a few examples of ones he has missed:

• The Tesla semi truck, announced in 2017 with a 2019 release date, didn’t begin production until last year.
• In 2017, SpaceX announced the first Mars mission would take place in 2020. That particular mission was eventually cancelled. He’s now saying a manned mission will take place by 2029.
• One of Musk’s first promises when buying Twitter was to make the site’s algorithm public. That didn’t happen; then he announced on Feb. 21 of this year it would occur “next week.” It didn’t happen until March 31 and even then the code was heavily redacted.
• The initial Twitter Blue rollout actually occurred roughly when Musk said it would. But it was so flawed that the company discontinued it to make tweaks to avoid mass impersonations. Musk vowed the new checkmark system would relaunch on Nov. 29. It didn’t happen until weeks after that.

Sometimes, though, Musk’s issues with deadlines have worked out for him. Last year, he was 11 days late in filing paperwork that publicly declared he had bought a large stake in Twitter. That foot-dragging made him $156 million, as he continued to buy shares at a lower price before his disclosure.