Sticking to its second deadline, Twitter has finally removed the legacy verified blue ticks on Thursday. Initially Twitter CEO, Elon Musk announced April 1 as the deadline for removing legacy verified badges. The date was then pushed to April 20, in a bid to press users to sign up for Twitter Blue, its paid subscription service.
As a result of this development, many notable figures across different fields have lost their coveted verification tick mark which stood as a credible badge to keep impersonations in check on the platform. With the introduction of Twitter Blue, only subscribers will be able to access brand-new features, like edit tweets and increased character limit, and have a blue checkmark next to their names.
In India, while some people are taking up the subscription even though they do not have a public facing profile, some who actually do have public facing jobs are not. This is because they feel credibility will be rendered a joke, courtesy the new paid service. Read more here.
However, not every legacy verified Twitter handle lost their blue tick. There are some who didn't.
Who are the exceptions?
Public figures with millions of followers are no more verified on Twitter. The list ranges from Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, to cricket personalities like Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar. These personalities have more than 180 million followers between them. Global figures, like Justin Bieber (113 million) and Cristiano Ronaldo (108 million), who are amongst the highest followed on Twitter have also lost the verification badge.
To reasons best known to Musk, there are some notable figures who still have their blue ticks intact, despite not paying for the subscription. The exceptions include Canadian actor William Shatner, NBA star LeBron James and author Stephen King. On clicking the blue tick on their Twitter profile, it reads "This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number".
King tweeted, saying his Twitter account says he has subscribed to Twitter Blue but he has not. To this, Musk replied, "You're welcome namaste".
While it was not clear whether James or Shatner have subscribed, Musk replied to a tweet mentioning it saying he was paying for some accounts personally. He tweeted this out in a reply to one of the Twitter Daily News tweet carrying the news regarding the same.
Musk's famous feud over subscription
Musk's subscription programme has been under criticism from day it was announced. William Shatner, LeBron James and Stephen King were the notable figures to have locked horns with the Tesla billionaire over his plans to charge for verification.
Stephen King had compared Musk to Tom Sawyer, the protagonist of Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' saying, "Musk makes me think of Tom Sawyer, who is given the job of whitewashing a fence as punishment. Tom cons his friends into doing the chore for him, and getting them to pay for the privilege. That's what Musk wants to do with Twitter. No, no, no."
Following this, Musk did defend his plan to charge a fee for a Twitter verification badge after Stephen King lambasted the idea, but the Twitter owner did agree to slash the price for his subscription based verification model to $8 from the previously-proposed $20 per month.
Shatner, the "Star Trek" actor, had also responded to Twitter's plans of scraping legacy verified blue ticks from users' accounts starting on April 1."Hey Elon Musk what's this about blue checks going away unless we pay Twitter?" Shatner tweeted. Expressing his disapproval, he asked, "Now you're telling me that I have to pay for something you gave me for free? What is this — the Colombia Records & Tape Club?"
In response, Musk quote-tweeted Shatner, saying: "It's more about treating everyone equally. There shouldn't be a different standard for celebrities imo."
Similarly, James had also said that he will not be paying for his blue tick on Twitter. He tweeted this on the eve of the first deadline (April 1) for removing the legacy verified badges.
How did Twitter react?
Many users with public facing jobs who chose not to pay for the subscription have lost their verified status. The change came into effect after the microblogging platform made a final announcement on Thursday saying, “Tomorrow, 4/20, we are removing legacy verified checkmarks. To remain verified on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue here…”
Twitter, since then, has gone into a frenzy with users poking fun and sharing memes related to the whole fiasco.
Many users, however, have been unfazed over the loss of legacy verification badge, as they feel it would hardly make a difference.
Many users who see no point paying for the Twitter Blue subscription, said 'no thanks'.