Virat Kohli, SRK, Yogi Adityanath, and Several Iconic Celebs and Politicians Lose Twitter Blue Tick on Their Accounts

Twitter takes off verified checkmarks from accounts of celebrities, politicians, etc. To retain the blue tick, a paid subscription is essential now.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: 2023-04-21 08:35:28

The unique feature ‘Blue Tick’ by Twitter was a way of safeguarding against impersonation and taking care of false information for popular individuals. Earlier the social media site had announced that they will remove the check-mark status from Twitter accounts. The verified check-mark in question will be then available to subscribers of the Twitter Blue feature only, or Twitter Verified Organizations Plan for business-focused groups and people.

But after the abrupt removal of the ‘free’ verified checkmarks, the legacy stands stranded from organizational and individual accounts just like that. And those who will pay to keep the Twitter Blue tick marks will get the check marks on their profiles. Several B-town celebrities lost the Twitter blue tick. And the same tale was for politicians as well. Here are a few who were the victims – Amitabh Bachchan, Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh, Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Deepika Padukone.

The politicians include Priyanka Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi, and Yogi Adityanath. The sports personalities who had the blue tick taken off were Sania Mirza, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Saina Nehwal. Twitter Blue sign-up charges are different for different regions. For instance, In India, the subscription costs Rs. 900 for Android and iOS users monthly, and for the year, the charges are Rs. 9,400. For iOS users, the web monthly subscription cost is Rs. 650.

Twitter is going to generate revenue through paid verification, according to Elon Musk. The microblogging site has also introduced programs for organizations and businesses wherein verification badges such as gray for governments and gold for companies/non-profits/brands at a cost of $1,000 per month. Twitter made an official announcement in March that it will start to take off the legacy verified program from 1 April and remove the verified checkmarks.

And those who wish to retain the legacy checkmarks will have to sign up for Twitter Blue. The check-marks were first introduced in 2009 to assist users in identifying the actual profile or accounts of brands, companies, celebrities, news organizations, politicians, and other accounts that serve the public interest. Having a blue tick mark on the account meant that it is the original profile and not that of an impostor or a parody.

There was no charge earlier for the verified checkmarks but since Musk took over the social media platform and came up with the idea of the Twitter Blue program, the badge, and other premium perks now carry a subscription cost to it.