New Delhi: Chaos prevailed on Twitter on Friday when Elon Musk finally removed all legacy verified accounts with blue check marks but allowed some celebrities to retain it.
In India, one has to shell out Rs 900 a month (or Rs 9,400 a year) to get Blue Verified status.
As more than 4 lakh legacy verified users bid goodbye to the blue check marks, some celebrities have been offered a complimentary Twitter Blue subscription “on behalf of Musk”.
After pushing back the April 1 deadline to sign up several times, Twitter on Thursday began removing checkmarks from thousands of legacy accounts.
Many government agencies, nonprofits and public-service accounts also lost the checkmark, raising concerns about how the public will be able to distinguish official channels of information from other accounts during public events or emergencies.
Under Musk, verified government accounts have been given a grey version of the checkmark and verified media outlets a gold tick, although it is not clear how these designations are handed out.
The blue checkmark was seen as an indicator of trustworthiness as it meant a user’s identity had been verified by the platform – helping users to identify impersonator accounts and misinformation – and was largely reserved for politicians, celebrities, journalists and media organisations.
Many Twitter users had objected to the changes amid fears the new system would encourage the spread of misinformation and fake news.
Twitter was forced to suspend the initial launch of Twitter Blue in early November 2022 following a wave of impersonation accounts but relaunched the service in December after changes.
The removal of checkmarks for non-paying users on Thursday sparked similar chaos, with impersonator accounts reemerging for public figures such as Jeff Bezos, whose fake account declared the billionaire was “officially shutting down Amazon”.
