The end of an era on Tuesday as Twitter finally removed its famed blue ticks, used to denote the official accounts of world leaders, celebrities and sports stars, from those who refused to pay up.
On Thursday afternoon, A-listers including Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber’s accounts were no longer verified.
The rollout of the removal has been months in the making with Musk saying since November that Twitter needed to become more profitable
Daily Mail Online reports that they could get the marks back by paying anywhere between $8 and $11 per month. But some longtime users have balked at buying the premium service championed by chief twit Elon Musk.
After buying Twitter for $44 billion in October, Musk has been trying to boost the struggling platform’s revenue by pushing more people to pay for a premium subscription.
But his move also reflects his assertion that the blue verification marks have become an undeserved or ‘corrupt’ status symbol for elite personalities and news reporters.
Following the removal, actor Ben Stiller joked: ‘No blue check, still feel like me.’ A brief survey of the social media site on Thursday afternoon showed celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber and Bill Gates as no longer being verified.
Neither is former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, not to mention Pope Francis, who has also seen his verification revoked. Even Donald Trump’s dormant account is no longer verified.
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