Twitter's blue ticks gone: Celebrities pay to get them back

Hyderabad: Celebrities big and small removed the removal of ‘blue tick marks’ on their Twitter handles, which had been a status symbols for long as it attested to their position.

Twitter owner Elon Musk said the legacy blue ticks would disappear, and those who wanted them, in most cases, would have to pay $8.

Many renowned figures round the world, including Beyonce and Pope Francis, lost their blue tick, Musk said he had paid for basketball legend LeBron James and author Stephen King.

About 4 lakh users lost the blue tick on Friday, including Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Virat Kohli, and Priyanka Chopra as well as Rahul Gandhi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi and Sachin Tendulkar, who has 38.6 million followers on Twitter.

Bachchan was among the first celebrities to react, stating that he had paid for the subscription and demanding his blue tick back. Many pointed out that the legacy blue tick marks were given after background checks but with the coveted symbols going on sale meant anyone could registered a fake account in the name of a celebrity or politician.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers as well as Twitter handles of political parties including the BJP and the Congress continued to display verified marks.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as well as BJP chief J.P. Nadda sported a grey checkmark, which indicated that an account represents a government/ multilateral organisation or a government/multilateral official.

Ironically, a parody account that went by the profile name of 'Rofl Gandhi 2.0' and sporting Rahul Gandhi's picture continued to host the blue tick. “What kind of world are you creating Elon Musk,” the handle tweeted.

Locally, the list of those who lost the blue tick mark red like a who’s who: Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, the Telangana CMO, AP Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and Union minister G. Kishan Reddy, as well as BJP leaders Tarun Chugh, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, MIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi, Telugu Desam leaders N. Chandrababu Naidu and Nara Lokesh, Congress seniors Uttam Kumar Reddy and Manickam Tagore

Party Twitter handles like BJP Telangana, AIMIM, Telangana Congress, BRS Party also lost the verification symbol.

However, the Twitter handles of ministers K.T. Rama Rao and T. Harish Rao and BRS MLC K. Kavitha showed the blue ticks.

Celebrities and Tollywood stars like Allu Arjun, Chiranjeevi, Ram Charan, Samantha Prabhu, Rashmika Mandanna, director Ram Gopal Verma were among those who lost the blue tick status.