Twitter is finally starting to remove the “legacy” blue ticks from verified accounts, with some of the world’s most high-profile figures losing their verification badges.
The Pope, author JK Rowling, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, American rapper Jay-Z and TV stars Ant and Dec as well as the Conservative and Labor parties have all lost their blue ticks on the social networking site.
Twitter has about 300,000 verified users under the original blue tick system, many of them athletes, musicians, journalists and other public figures.
The only remaining blue ticks will be Subscribed to Twitter Bluewho are in the UK or associated with the company spend up to £11 a month.
But instead of the “traditional” blue tick Twitter introduced shortly after its launch to help people know which accounts are legitimate, the platform will no longer verify accounts to make sure they are who they say they are.
Accounts with different colored checkmarks will retain these – Gold means they are a verified business, while gray means they represent a government, multilateral organization or official.
it pulled the curtain on one of the most controversial elements muskthe management of or Twitter since his A $44bn (£38bn) acquisition last October.
One of his first big decisions was to allow users to pay prices, Declare “power to the people”but the move backfired, flooding the platform with accounts Impersonating brands, celebrities and politicians.
A person claiming to be former US President George W. Bush tweeted that “I miss killing Iraqis”, while another posing as an official Nintendo account posted a picture of Super Mario making a rude Gesture photo.
Twitter therefore paused the rollout of paid ticksintroducing different colored tick marks to distinguish between government, business and individual, and Twitter Blue relaunches a month later.
In the final debate before a removal date was set, Twitter makes old verified offers indistinguishable from those already paid.