As it was announced by the Micro-blogging site Twitter that it will remove the legacy verified blue ticks from all accounts, which did not subscribe its paid scheme, the social media giant on Thursday took away the blue ticks from accounts belonging to some top politicians and celebs.
Many of Twitter's high-profile users lost the blue checks that helped verify their identity and distinguish them from impostors on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform. After several false starts, Twitter began making good on its promise on Thursday to remove the blue checks from accounts that don't pay a monthly fee to keep them.
Top personalities who lost the blue tick
High-profile users who lost their blue checks on Thursday included Congress leaders- Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and BJP IT Cell's Amit Malviya, Bollywood actors- Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Alia Bhatt, cricketers- Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and global personalities- Beyoncé, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey and former President Donald Trump.
Twitter had about 300,000 verified users under the original blue-check system — many of them journalists, athletes and public figures. The checks — which used to mean the account was verified by Twitter to be who it says it is — began disappearing from these users' profiles late morning Pacific Time.
The costs of keeping the marks range from USD 8 a month for individual web users to a starting price of USD 1,000 monthly to verify an organisation, plus USD 50 monthly for each affiliate or employee account.
Twitter does not verify the individual accounts, as was the case with the previous blue check doled out during the platform's pre-Musk administration.
Celebrity users, from basketball star LeBron James to author Stephen King and Star Trek's William Shatner, have balked at joining — although on Thursday, all three had blue checks indicating that the account paid for verification.
(With AP input)
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