Twitter blue tick tornado: A tale of chaos and confusion spearheaded by Elon Musk

Twitter CEO Elon Musk removed all blue ticks from legacy accounts last week. The new system now limits the blue checkmarks to the ones who choose to subscribe to Twitter Blue. The service costs Rs 900 per month for Android and iOS users and Rs 650 per month on web in India.

Right from the start, when Musk bought Twitter, he clarified that he intends to remove all Twitter legacy blue checks as he believes that “the way in which they were given out was corrupt and nonsensical.” Musk tweeted that the company’s legacy “lords & peasants” system was “bulls**t” and decided to hand out blue ticks to all users who are ready to pay for it.

Earlier, Musk had announced that Twitter will start removing the legacy blue checks starting April 1, which did not happen. This led many to believe that Musk is just bluffing. It was reported by The Washington Post that the microblogging platform could not remove all the legacy blue ticks because the process is largely manual and there weren't enough employees at Twitter.

Later, he again announced that the final date to remove blue ticks is “4/20”. Many did not take it seriously as this matter was being dragged on for a long time now. To everyone’s surprise, Twitter removed the blue ticks of all legacy accounts on April 20. This caught the users off guard and wreaked havoc on the social media platform.

Celebrities in blue tick crisis

Several big celebrities including Virat Kohli, Priyanka Jonas Chopra, Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Chrissy Teigen, Kim Kardashian, were not on board with the idea of paying for blue ticks on the platform. The decision was highly criticised. There were concerns about misinformation and impersonation on the platform. A “Block the Blue” hashtag also started trending on the social media platform. A “this mf paid for Twitter” meme also surfaced on the internet, mocking users who chose to pay for the blue tick.

The return of Twitter blue ticks

Just after Twitter removed blue checkmarks of all the legacy accounts and unleashed chaos on the platform, Elon Musk took a U-turn and started reinstating blue ticks for some users. It is assumed that these accounts included almost all celebrities with 1 million or more followers.

Notably, there are several exceptions to that as well. Chrissy Teigen, who has over 12M followers, did not get the blue tick mark. Similarly, Star Wars actor Mark Hamill with over 5M Twitter followers also did not get his Blue tick back. Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpayee with 1.7M followers also did not get a blue tick on Twitter at the time of writing this story.

In addition to these, blue ticks were also restored for the accounts of deceased celebs with more than 1 million followers, including Sushant Singh Rajput, Sidharth Shukla, Chadwick Boseman and Kobe Bryant.

On clicking the blue tick on these accounts, it reads, “This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”

Musk further tweeted that he is “paying for a few personally” that included LeBron James and Stephen King. Notably, these were the two celebs who criticized the paid Twitter verified badge system.

The blue tick is not only for celebrities, it also helps users identify other high-profile accounts like government office accounts, news organisations and journalists, and influencers. Earlier there was an entire authentication process that a user had to go through to get verified on Twitter, but now, anyone can have it.

Some notable celebrities including Drew Barrymore, Johnny Lever, Pankaj Tripathi and more still do not have the verification badges as they have less than 1M followers.

Twitter Blue benefits, price in India 

Twitter Blue service provides features like edit tweet, 10,000 character cap per tweet, ability to upload high quality videos, more visibility, two-factor authentication with SMS and blue checkmarks to all the subscribers.

In a recent tweet, Musk added to the list of benefits of subscribing to Twitter Blue. He wrote that “Verified accounts are now prioritized.” This will give paid members more visibility. 

Also Read: 'Hey Blue Tick welcome back': Film stars rejoice as Twitter reinstates legacy blue checkmark

 

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