Chronicle Editor
Online Reporter
Celebrities on Twitter today are no longer verified as the Elon Musk-owned social media giant began a purge on those who have not paid the US$84 per year subscription to Twitter Blue.
Users who wish to retain the check beside their name must pay $84 a year to subscribe to Twitter Blue.
Celebs such as football stars and icons, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and renowned musician Beyonce are all no longer verified on Twitter.
Twitter began removing the once-coveted blue tick verification from thousands of accounts on Thursday.
The move comes as owner Elon Musk attempts to overhaul the social media company to turn a profit.
As some lost their ticks, others kept them.
Twitter first introduced the verification feature in 2009, after a former professional baseball player sued the social media giant over imposter accounts.
The blue check became a status symbol and a sign of authority. But in the new Twitter-verse, Mr Musk wants users to pay to be verified.
According to BBC, the decision to monetise verification could usher in a massive cultural and power shift on the platform.
In the days before verification, Kanye West, Shaq and Ewan McGregor were among the first celebrities to speak out about being impersonated on Twitter. Now that the badges are gone, a celebrity’s follower count may become the only way to tell the difference between someone famous and an imposter.
Within a few hours of losing verification, an account posing as Hillary Clinton, complete with the same profile picture as the former US Senator, “announced” she would again run for the presidency.
Under Twitter’s new verification scheme, gold, grey and blue badges are meant to provide more context to how an account was verified.
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