Elon Musk’s Twitter made a bold move on April 21, withdrawing the blue tick and asking people to sign up for the new subscription.
Twitter has removed all blue verification checkmarks on accounts held by notable individuals and organisations. The microblogging site had previously stated that the blue tick, which is used to differentiate between genuine accounts and fake accounts or the ones made by fans, would only be available to those who would pay $8 per month subscription fee.
Twitter has been rife with chaos as unverified individuals have been impersonating prominent personalities and organisations since Musk took over. Although policies were put in place to tackle this issue, the decision to remove the verified badge has left many celebrities feeling dissatisfied.
This move has resulted in many high-profile individuals losing their blue ticks, including celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Virat Kohli, Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Rahul Gandhi.
Active Twitter users such as cricketers M S Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, fiction writer Chetan Bhagat, and South Indian superstar Rajnikanth also lost their verification status because they did not subscribe to Twitter Blue.
However, some individuals, like Jr NTR and SS Rajamouli, who starred and directed, respectively, in the film RRR, still have their blue ticks, suggesting they have subscribed to the service. Baahubali star Rana Daggubati and South Indian actors Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Nayantara also lost their blue ticks. Even superstar Chiranjeevi and Tamil actor Kamal Hassan lost their verified status.
Many Pakistani stars, including Mahira Khan, Fahad Mustafa, Hamza Ali Abbasi and Asim Azhar, have also lost their blue ticks because they have yet to subscribe to Twitter Blue. Notable figures like Imran Khan, Malala Yousafzai and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also lost their verified status. However, others like Hareem Farooq, Jemima Goldsmith and Bilal Lashari kept their blue ticks because they had subscribed to Twitter Blue.
Several international celebrities also lost their blue ticks, including the Pope, Oprah Winfrey and Beyonce. Surprisingly, Musk paid for the blue ticks of three celebrities: William Shatner, Stephen King, and LeBron James, despite King criticizing the verification payment. The UK’s Ricky Gervais and Prince William and Princess Kate also lost their blue ticks.
While some celebrities, such as Snoop Dogg, Cardi B and Taylor Swift, still have their blue ticks. An analysis by independent researcher Travis Brown suggests that only 4.4% of Twitter’s legacy verified accounts have subscribed to Twitter Blue so far. As the policy continues to roll out, it is likely that many verified accounts will lose their status, depending on their decision to subscribe to Twitter Blue.
