India’s top sports stars including the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu have lost the ‘blue tick’ that used to verify their identity on micro-blogging site Twitter.
Blue ticks were provided free of cost to journalists, government officials and celebrities in their field to avoid impersonation and ‘spam’ on social media platforms. Twitter, however, on Thursday removed blue ticks from accounts that do not pay a monthly subscription for the service.
Twitter was bought by Tesla CEO Elon Musk last year. Twitter tweeted on Wednesday from its verified official account, “We are removing verified checkmarks (blue ticks) from tomorrow, April 20.”
Apart from Tendulkar, Kohli and Sindhu, World Cup-winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, current skipper Rohit Sharma, Olympic medalists Saina Nehwal, Neeraj Chopra and Bajrang Punia, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, two-time world boxing champion Nikhat Zareen, tennis player Sania Mirza, Indian football team captain Sunil Chhetri, men’s hockey team goalkeeper PR Sreejesh are among the many Indian sportspersons who have lost their blue ticks from Twitter.
Tennis legends Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, footballers Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe and basketball legend Stephen Curry also no longer have verified accounts on Twitter. Twitter now only has verified accounts of individuals and organizations that pay for it.
A monthly payment of Rs 650 has to be made to get Twitter’s Blue Tick on the web and Rs 900 to get it on mobile.
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