The day finally arrived when all legacy verified accounts lost their blue ticks on Twitter. Twitter removed the blue checks on 20th April 2023, which was supposed to happen on 1st April 2023. However, the change appeared to only a few selected accounts before. Elon Musk tweeted last week that the “final date for removing legacy Blue checks is 4/20.”
Suggested read: Get Twitter Blue Subscription in India at a Starting Price of Rs. 650
Blue ticks were removed for accounts and the reactions
Almost immediately after the disappearance of the blue ticks, many users tweeted about leaving the platform. Even accounts of high-profile people such as Bill Gates, Pope Francis, Donald Trump, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, etc. lost their verification checkmark. However, Barack Obama’s account could retain the blue check due to his affiliation with the Barack and Michelle Obama office. Obama has the second most followers with 132.8 million after Musk.
Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Britney Spears, Ellen DeGeneres, Taylor Swift, and many other TV and movie celebrities lost their blue ticks. Now the verification blue checkmark would be available only to those accounts that pay for the Twitter Blue subscription.
About
The much sought-after blue check was reserved for verified accounts of famous personalities, politicians, journalists, sportspersons, and other public figures before. However, a paid monthly subscription model was rolled out after Musk took over Twitter.
Expectations from the change
Twitter expects to increase revenue by bringing in more people to subscribe to Twitter Blue. However, for Twitter’s global ‘town square’ credentials, this decision threatens to create more impersonations of famous people as whoever pays the subscription fee shall get the blue tick. Hopefully, Twitter would be able to deal with this problem when the situation arises.
