Goodbye to Twitter blue-tick legacy: Sachin Tendulkar reacts with a smiling selfie, wins hearts online

“My #AskSachin debut here on Twitter. Bring on some interesting questions!” read Tendulkar’s query prompt on Friday. Tendulkar’s tweet elicited several responses from users and many were delighted to see his smiling face.

A user commented, “@sachin_rt Congratulations! Now you can finally prove to all your 0 followers that you are a verified nobody.” Another user wrote, “If you think you don’t need blue tick-related benefits, there is no need to buy blue tick. @elonmusk is just trying to survive bankruptcy, which is why a new way of generating revenue and providing more services. Or, tomorrow, there will be no Twitter and no connections with fans.” A third user wrote, “That’s creative.”

There were over 3,00,000 verified users on Twitter under the former blue-tick scheme, which included journalists, public figures, athletes, government officials and movie stars. The social media platform wants users 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.