Kohli, SRK, Rahul, Kejriwal among big names who lost Twitter blue tick

Many of Twitter’s high-profile users are losing the blue ticks that helped verify their identity and distinguish them from impostors on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform.

After several false starts, Twitter began making good on its promise on Thursday (April 20) to remove the blue checks from accounts that don’t pay a monthly fee to keep them.

Twitter had about 300,000 verified users under the original blue-check system many of them journalists, athletes and public figures. The checks which used to mean the account was verified by Twitter to be who it says it is began disappearing from these users profiles late morning Pacific Time.

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High-profile users who lost their blue checks on Thursday included Beyoncé, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey and former President Donald Trump.

The costs of keeping the marks range from $8 a month for individual web users to a starting price of $1,000 monthly to verify an organisation, plus $50 monthly for each affiliate or employee account.

Twitter does not verify the individual accounts, as was the case with the previous blue check doled out during the platform’s pre-Musk administration.

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Celebrity users, from cricketer Virat Kohli to Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, and several political leaders including Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal lost the blue tick on their Twitter accounts.

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

(With agency inputs)