New Delhi: Twitter was in chaos as Elon Musk’s long-awaited plan to remove all legacy verified accounts with blue check marks was finally implemented on Friday. The move affected more than 4 lakh legacy verified users, including several high-profile individuals and organizations.
In India, a Twitter user has to pay ₹900 per month (or ₹9,400 per year) to obtain a blue verified status, while in the United States, the subscription costs USD 8 per month via the web and USD 11 per month through in-app payment on iOS and Android.
While some celebrities were allowed to retain their blue ticks, others were offered a complimentary Twitter Blue subscription on behalf of Musk. The new subscription service is the only way to keep a gold or grey check-mark badge, which was recently introduced by Twitter for companies and brands.
The list of big names who lost their blue ticks includes RSS, BJP, Mamata Banerjee, Asaduddin Owaisi, Mayawati, M VenkaiahNaidu, Yogi Adityanath, Arvind Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Dr Raman Singh, Amit Malviya, Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar, Basavaraj S Bommai, Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Office of KTR, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza, Rohit Sharma, Sourav Ganguly, Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, and many others.
Twitter had earlier warned of winding down all the legacy verified accounts from April 1 and removing the checkmarks for those who still had them but were not paying for a Twitter Blue subscription. The company has also shifted government accounts to a gray check-mark.
The new Twitter verified organizations program in the United States costs USD 1,000 per month (plus tax) for a gold check-mark badge and USD 50 per month (plus tax) for each additional affiliate subaccount.
The removal of legacy blue ticks has prompted some users to leave the site, while others have expressed disappointment over the loss of their verified status. The move is part of Twitter’s efforts to monetize the platform and offer better verification services to its users.