Now the privilege of Twitter blue tick only for those who pay

Social media platform Twitter on Thursday removed the verified blue badges from all accounts that had it. Henceforth, the Elon-Musk owned micro-blogging platform will only give the blue tick for accounts that pay a monthly fee.

From celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Alia Bhatt; politicians CM Yogi Adityanath, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to cricketers Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, among others, have lost their verified blue ticks from their Twitter accounts.

Twitter first introduced the blue check mark system in 2009 to help users identify that celebrities, politicians, brands and news organizations and other accounts of public interest were genuine and not impostors. While the company didn't previously charge for verification, earlier in March, Twitter posted from their official handle, "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.”

Those who are now paying for Twitter Blue, which costs USD 8/month via the web and USD 11/month through in-app payment on iOS and Android, will have the privilege of verified blue check marks. Other big names who lost their blue ticks include Beyoncé, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey and former US President Donald Trump.