Twitter begins removing blue tick, now paid subscription

Micro-blogging site Twitter on Thursday removed the legacy verified blue ticks from all accounts. Many users said they had lost their verified blue check marks.From now on, only users who have subscribed to pay Twitter Blue verification service will have blue ticks on the micro-blogging platform. It have been replaced by paid subscription service. In India, Twitter Blue is available for a monthly fee of Rs 650 on the web and Rs 900 on mobile devices. The microblogging platform also offers a discounted annual plan of Rs6,800 per year, which comes to Rs 566.67 per month.

Tomorrow, 4/20, we are removing legacy verified checkmarks. To remain verified on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue here: https://t.co/gzpCcwOXAX

Organizations can sign up for Verified Organizations here: https://t.co/YtPVNYypHU

— Twitter Verified (@verified) April 19, 2023

Due to the recent development, several B-town celebrities including Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Alia Bhatt and politicians like CM Yogi Adityanath, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and cricketers Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma among others have lost their verified blue ticks from their Twitter accounts. Celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Kim Kardashian had lost their check marks. Public figures relating to all sectors of society, from Bill Gates to Pope Francis, also lost their checks.

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. The company didn't previously charge for verification. Elon Musk launched Twitter Blue with the check-mark badge as one of the premium perks within two weeks of the company's takeover last year. Twitter had about 300,000 verified users under the original blue-check system — many of them journalists, athletes and public figures.