Twitter has again made another U-turn, this time in the form of mass removal of the blue tick.
Twitter removed blue tick from all the celebrity account pic.twitter.com/XwYxkGgyx0
No ad to show here.
— Abhishek (@be_mewadi) April 21, 2023
The blue tick or checkmark as it is referred to in several other regions of the world has been removed for most users, who have not subscribed to Twitter Blue.
The check mark which previously was used to identify public figures has been revoked after Twitter boss Elon Musk introduced a paid-for service to verify accounts last year.
Pay for the tick or stay without it.
Musk appears to have delivered on a promise to have paid-for Twitter subscribers gain access to Twitter privileges.
Gone
The blue tick disappeared on Thursday, meaning popular figures such as Beyonce alongside others were stripped of their verified tick.
Twitter has unverified Ronaldo and other celebrities, they must buy blue ticks now
pic.twitter.com/jyfxrDZ81i — Onyebigwa
(@onyebigwa_) April 20, 2023
Musk introduced the paid service last year when he introduced Twitter Blue which according to him would assist in filtering out unwanted bots and ads.
Twitter Blue hit South African shores early this year and promised to allow citizens to reap some of the services benefits such as longer videos, the ability to edit tweets and the added benefit of being prioritized by the platform.
For only R 2100 a year which was the promotional price, you could have access to a finite number of added benefits.
That’s half the adverts, a blue checkmark, with the certainty of ranking higher with your content.
Twitter red carpet
You will receive what could be Twitter’s red carpet treatment, which includes prioritized tweets, access to bookmark folders, access to an edit tweet feature and the certainty of being the first to get features when they’re rolled out.
Subscribers will get access to being prioritized when searched for or mentioned with the option of 1080p video uploads and access to more incoming features from the platform.
The subscription service does come at a possible R200 a month fee with the annual price largely going to be affected by other factors such as region.
For about R 2 099 a year you can subscribe to gain access to the newly revamped platform which Musk has described as the global town square.
Blue tick changing meaning
The definition of the blue tick has changed several times since Musk took over Twitter.
Either an account was verified under the previous verification criteria (authentic user or active user) or the account has an active subscription to Twitter’s new Twitter Blue subscription service which has been enabled since Thursday November 9, 2022.
Subscriptions however mean changing profile names will be limited if not restricted.
This all changed yesterday.
Those who have not signed up for Twitter Blue have been left out and stripped of the blue tick.
The likes of Donald Trump, Bill Gates, including Kim Kardashian alongside some government agencies have lost the authenticating blue tick.
The big catch for impersonation
The loss of the blue tick for prominent figures means people may launch parody accounts with the public unaware of who’s who.
Congratulations Elon well done pic.twitter.com/sgCYht0udR
— Reiss Nelson Mandela (@comradesipho) April 21, 2023
Bye, Twitter.
The tipping point was having to pay for verification, when we feel we add a lot of value. We also feel solidarity with NPR, and share concerns about Twitter’s direction. You can find us on the blog and TikTok. If we join another platform, we’ll send word here. 🫡 — SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) April 20, 2023
Musk has made it clear that adding a subscription tier meant everyone celebrities and the ordinary man would be treated equal. The CEO also indicated that paid for subscriptions meant curbing spam and fake accounts.
Elon didn’t spare any of us
Oh well, the blue tick was great while it lasted
#TwitterBlue pic.twitter.com/9NDgkRlrHM — Fifi Peters (@FifiPeters) April 21, 2023
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