Earlier this year, Elon Musk, the owner of the popular social media platform, Twitter, announced that the company will remove the blue ticks from profiles by 20th April 2023 if the respective owners of the profiles have not subscribed to the program.

The move has been vastly criticized by celebrities, businesses, and influencers for a plethora of reasons. Earlier, the blue tick signified that a profile was an authentic one and not an impersonated one. This helped celebrities, brands, and influencers to connect with their followers with ease.

However, Elon Musk, announced that Twitter will be rolling out a scheme where if you have not paid and subscribed, you will no longer have a verified tag (blue tick) next to the profile. The decision was taken to generate direct revenue through the platform.

What’s the problem then, you ask?

Well, one of the biggest problems is that, with the ongoing subscription scheme, people feel that “unworthy” sources will also get a legacy blue tick just because they have paid for it. Another problem is the removal of the blue tick from accounts that have had it for years. The list of people who have lost blue ticks includes celebrities, famous figures, organizations, influencers, news sources, brands, and businesses from every industry.

However, recently, Elon Musk spoke about the speculations that the blue tick scheme is purely launched to generate more revenue. To address the speculation, Elon said:

“Well, I don’t think [subscriptions are] necessarily a giant revenue stream, [but] even if you have a million people that are subscribed for, let’s say, a hundred dollars a year-ish, that’s a hundred million dollars. That’s a fairly small revenue stream relative to advertising, but what we’re really trying to do here with verification is to massively raise the cost of disinformation and bots in general.”

After the blue tick was removed as promised, a number of big names including A-list actors, models, and influencers mocked Elon Musk by tweeting about the same. In a witty tweet, Amitabh Bachchan wrote:

"T 4623 - Ae Twitter bhaiya! Sun rahe he? Ab to paisa bhi bhar diye hein hum... toh ou jo neel kamal (green tick emoticon) hot he na, hamar naam ke aagey, u toh vapas lagaye de bhaiya, taaki log jaan jaaye ki hum hi hein- Amitabh Bachchan... haath toh jor liye he hum, Ab ka godwa jode padi ka??"

Translation: Oh Twitter brother? Now I have paid the money too... so that blue mark is there, right? Put it back brother, so that people know that I am the real Amitabh Bachchan... I am here with folded hands. Now, shall I fold my knees too?

Fast forward to April 24th, 2023, a few Twitter profiles have recovered blue ticks on their own. Some of these accounts belong to deceased celebrities such as Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Hollywood actor Chadwick Boseman, the king of pop Michael Jackson, and former prime minister of Japan - Shinzo Abe among others.

Other than that, a lot of former blue tick holders have gotten their blue tick back. Surprisingly, some of them such as Indian Journalist Nidhi Razdan, have not even paid for the same. Overall, people are still confused about the ongoing change in the scheme.

Twitter has also given a golden check to several brands that generate lots of revenue for the platform. Other than that, Twitter is also offering grey ticks to certain profiles. While people still do not have clarity over the matter. The whole world including top-tier influencers, celebrities, and organizations is furious about this move from Twitter.

There is still lots more to come in the ongoing Twitter Legacy Blue Tick Saga. Stay tuned with us as the cover the nitty-gritty of the same. See you in the next blog!

Social Media Buzz: The Twitter Legacy Blue Tick Saga Continues