Twitter has been making headlines recently due to the removal of the coveted blue checkmarks from legacy accounts, causing outrage among notable personalities around the world.
The change was first noticed by Twitter users on Thursday, with thousands of journalists, politicians, and government officials losing their verified status. Twitter had initially planned to remove all blue ticks from April 1 but later decided to retain legacy accounts with a pop-up message indicating their status. However, it seems that Twitter has finally begun to follow Elon Musk’s policy of removing all blue ticks that were not paying the monthly fee to keep them.
Many high-profile individuals have lost their blue ticks, which verified their identity and helped them deal with impostors on the platform. Under the former blue-tick scheme, Twitter had over 3,00,000 verified users, most of whom were public figures, athletes, government officials, and movie stars. Notable personalities such as Pope Francis, Beyonce, Oprah Winfrey, former US president Donald Trump, Indian politicians Yogi Adityanath and Mamata Banerjee, and superstar Shah Rukh Khan are among those who have lost their verified badges.
The latest move by Twitter is seen as a push by Elon Musk to revive the dwindling revenues of the platform, which he acquired in October 2022 for $44 billion. Musk has been pushing for more people to subscribe to the platform, and the removal of blue ticks for legacy accounts is seen as a step in this direction. However, the move has also been interpreted as a way for Musk to address his view that blue ticks propagated a certain elitism. He has been critical of the previous management at Twitter, who doled out free verification to journalists and other elites.
Interestingly, some users who continue to have a blue tick have received a message indicating that their account is verified because they were subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone numbers. American author Stephen King, who is known for his verbal spats with Elon Musk on Twitter, took to his account to state that he continues to have the blue tick even though he hasn’t subscribed to Twitter Blue. Some users have also shared instances of the blue tick disappearing and reappearing on their profiles.
Despite the backlash from high-profile users, it seems that Twitter is intent on sticking to its new policy. Legacy accounts that lost their blue ticks continue to see the ‘Verified’ tab in the Notification section, indicating that Twitter has made a distinction between legacy verified accounts and those verified through the new subscription model.
Twitter’s decision to remove blue ticks from legacy accounts has caused quite a stir in the online world. The move is seen as a push by Elon Musk to increase revenue and address his views on elitism in social media. While some users have managed to keep their blue ticks through the new subscription model, many notable personalities have lost their verified status, causing outrage among the affected individuals. It remains to be seen how this decision will impact Twitter’s user base and revenue in the long run.