Twitter Begins Removing Blue Ticks From Legacy Verify Accounts Starting Thursday, the Elon Musk-owned microblogging platform began revoking the popular Blue Ticks. Twitter users noticed the change last night. As a result, thousands of journalists, celebrities, politicians and government officials around the world lost their blue ticks.
Some users have also shared cases of Blue Ticks disappearing and reappearing on their profiles. Initially, Twitter was set to remove all blue ticks from April 1, however, it later retained legacy accounts with a pop-up message stating that the account is either legacy verified or subscribed to Twitter Blue.
However some users who had Blue Ticks turned on received a message that their account was “verified because they subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”
Twitter has finally started removing ‘legacy’ Blue Ticks from users who have yet to pay for Twitter Blue plans. CEO Elon Musk tweeted on April 12 that all users who have yet to pay will lose their verified blue badges starting April 20, and it looks like the microblogging platform has finally started removing blue badges. Twitter Blue is currently available worldwide for $8 per month if they sign up through a web browser. If you’re using Twitter on iOS or Android, you’ll need to pay $11 through an in-app payment.
In India, Twitter Blue Ticks cost Rs. per month on iOS and Android. 900 and on web client Rs. 650 is Twitter Rs. 6,500 offers a discounted annual plan, which is around Rs. is up to 566. Verified Twitter accounts are now showing this message: “This account is verified because they have subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”
Users who lost their Blue Ticks took to Twitter for their reactions, including Tom Warren, The Verge, and Raspberry Pi, makers of inexpensive, small computers for the home.
Noted Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar also lost their Blue Ticks and so did Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, to name a few. The platform’s Blue Ticks verified badges, which were previously offered free to users after passing an online verification process, have been monetized since Musk took over the company in a $44-billion hostile bid last year.
As part of the revamped Twitter Blue service, subscribing users will automatically receive the coveted Blue Tick without going through an elaborate verification process.
In addition to keeping their blue checkmarks, Twitter Blue Ticks subscribers can also access simple benefits like priority ranking in conversations, half the number of ads, long-form tweets, bookmarking folders, custom navigation, editing tweets, undoing tweets and more.
Musk has previously said the firm will remove all Blue Ticks as it focuses on monetizing its platform by charging users. Twitter Blue users will also see 50 percent fewer ads in their home timeline, and companies and brands can apply for a Gold checkmark.