From SRK to Stalin: Know who all lost blue tick on Twitter

CHENNAI: Twitter on Thursday began removing legacy blue check marks from user profiles, with famous personalities, including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, actor Rajinikanth, Shah Rukh Khan and cricketer Virat Kohli, losing their verified statuses.

Among those losing their badges were Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, BJP leader and member of the NCW Khushbu Sundar, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu, former US president Donald Trump, Microsoft Corp cofounder Bill Gates and reality TV star Kim Kardashian.

However, some personalities such as basketball star LeBron James, author Stephen King, singers Rihanna and Taylor Swift still had their check marks intact.

'IT' author Stephen King took to his official Twitter handle and tweeted, “My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t.” Musk tweeted back to him: “You’re welcome namaste,” with a hands folded emoji.

Twitter announced on April 20, "We are removing legacy verified checkmarks".

"To remain verified on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue. Organisations can sign up for Verified Organisations," the company said.

Twitter Blue in India will cost Rs 9,400 a year (or Rs 900 a month) for individual users. The users can also get Blue Verified for $7 a month if they sign up via web browser, Musk announced.

In its earlier effort to remove legacy accounts with Blue check marks, the company apparently did not have the backend technology to remove around 4.2 lakh legacy accounts with Blue ticks all at once.

According to The Washington Post, there were technical challenges to removing so-called blue ticks quickly at scale and the only way to do it currently was through a manual approach.