Twitter removes blue checkmarks from legacy accounts, notable personalities lose verified status

Elon Musk’s Twitter has started removing blue ticks from legacy verified accounts in a bid to push the Twitter Blue services.

Twitter has removed blue ticks from legacy verified accounts

Several notable personalities including journalists, movie stars, and government officials lost their verified status following the move. (Image for representation: Twitter)

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Twitter has started removing blue checkmarks from legacy verified accounts, and all hell seems to have broken loose. Starting Thursday, the Elon Musk-owned microblogging platform began revoking the coveted blue checkmark. The change was noticed by Twitter users sometime last night. Consequently, thousands of journalists, politicians, and government officials around the world lost their blue ticks.

Several users have also shared instances of the blue tick disappearing and reappearing on their profiles. Initially, Twitter was set to remove all blue ticks from April 1, however, later it retained legacy accounts with a pop-up message saying that the account was either a legacy verified or subscribed to Twitter Blue.

Also Read | Twitter Blue starts rolling out in India; will cost Rs 900 per month on Android and iOS

Although some users who continue to have a blue check received a message saying that their account “is verified because they were subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”

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American author Stephen King who is known for his verbal spat on Twitter with Elon Musk, took to his account to state that he continues to have the blue tick even though he hasn’t subscribed to Twitter Blue.

My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t.
My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) April 20, 2023

Interestingly, the legacy accounts that lost their blue ticks continue to see the ‘Verified’ tab in the Notification section.

With the latest turn of events, it seems many high-profile individuals were losing the blue ticks that verified their identity and helped them deal with impostors on the platform. Twitter has finally begun following Elon Musk’s policy of removing all blue ticks that did not pay the monthly fee to keep them. Twitter had over 3,00,000 verified users under the former blue-tick scheme, and most of them were journalists, public figures, athletes, government officials, and movie stars.

Pope Francis, Beyonce, Oprah Winfrey, former US president Donald Trump, Indian politicians Yogi Adityanath and Mamata Banerjee, and superstar Shah Rukh Khan are among the notable personalities who lost their verified badges.

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Also Read | Twitter set to remove legacy blue ticks from April 1, pushes Blue subscription

Twitter wants individuals to pay $8 a month for web and $1,000 a month for organisations and an additional $50 monthly for each affiliate or employee account.

Ever since acquiring Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion, Musk has been grappling to revive the dwindling revenues of the platform. His push for more people to subscribe is seen as a step in this direction. However, the latest move also stands with his view that blue ticks also propagated a certain elitism. Musk has been critical of the previous management at Twitter that doled out free verification to journalists and other elites.