Twitter has started to remove the “legacy” blue ticks on verified accounts. Some of the most famous people in the world have lost the verification sign.
On the social media site, the Pope, JK Rowling the author, Cristiano Ronaldo the footballer, Jay-Z the US rapper, Ant and Dec, the Conservatives and Labour Parties have all lost their blue ticks.
Twitter has about 300,000 verified accounts, including athletes, musicians and journalists.
Only those with a Twitter Blue Subscription (which costs up to PS11 per month in the UK) or who are affiliated with this company will have blue ticks.
The platform will no more verify accounts to make sure they are what they claim to be.
All accounts with coloured checkmarks are. Gold indicates that they represent an official, government, or multilateral organization.
This brings to an end one of the most contentious aspects of Musk’s management of Twitter, since his $44bn takeover in October last year.
The move was a disaster, as the platform became flooded with accounts pretending to be celebrities, brands and politicians.
A fake account purporting as former US President George W Bush posted “I miss killing Iraqis”, and another, posing as Nintendo’s official page, posted a photo of Super Mario making an offensive gesture.
Twitter stopped the distribution of ticks that were paid for as a consequence. They introduced different colours to differentiate between government, business, and individuals, and launched Twitter Blue one month later.
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