CM Yogi to Virat Kohli, many prominent names lose Twitter blue tick

After micro-blogging site Twitter removed the legacy verified blue ticks from all accounts on Thursday, many celebrities and politicians have lost blue checks, a feature that helped people to find their official accounts.

The social media company will now give the blue check marks only to those who are paying for Twitter Blue. It will now cost USD 8/month via the web and USD 11/month through in-app payment on iOS and Android.

The blue tick served as a way of protecting the accounts of prominent individuals from impersonation and tackling false information.

The platform had about 300,000 verified users under the original blue-check system - many of them journalists, athletes and public figures. The checks began disappearing from these users' profiles from Thursday.

Who All Have Lost The Blue Ticks In India

The prominent names to lose the Twitter Blue are: Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, and politicians such as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, cricketers Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, among many others.

Globally, former US President Donald Trump, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey and many others have lost the privilege of verified blue check marks.

The company didn't charge for verification earlier and the policy changed after Elon Musk's took over, last year.

He launched Twitter Blue with the check-mark badge as one of the premium perks within two weeks of the company's takeover last year.

Earlier it was announced that the microblogging site will remove the verified check-mark status of accounts that Twitter had been verified as notable before Elon Musk's takeover unless they have subscribed to Twitter Blue or the business-focused Twitter Verified Organizations plan, Variety reported.

In March, Twitter had announced, "On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks. To keep your blue checkmark on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue. Twitter first introduced the blue check mark system in 2009 to help users identify that celebrities, politicians, companies and brands, news organizations and other accounts "of public interest" were genuine and not impostors or parody accounts.

With inputs from agencies