On April 21, 2021, more than four lakh Twitter accounts lost their blue tick verification status, including celebrities such as Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, Shah Rukh Khan, and Virat Kohli. The blue tick — introduced in 2009 — was used by Twitter to distinguish genuine accounts of celebrities, politicians, news organizations, and other public figures. Elon Musk announced Twitter Blue, a paid subscription service, which caused many accounts to lose their verification status. Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai recently launched DeepMind, an AI system to create safe and robust technologies, in response to the increasing competition in the race for artificial intelligence.
Individuals and businesses in India need to pay Rs 900 every month, and Rs 9,400 annually, to attain a Blue Verified status on Twitter. Additionally, some of the US’s most popular personalities such as philanthropist Bill Gates, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, and billionaire George Soros are among those to have lost the blue tick. Other recognizable names include Pope Francis, Beyonce, Kim Kardashian, and Oprah Winfrey.
Furthermore, Bollywood celebrities such as Alia Bhatt and Amitabh Bachchan and Indian cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma have also lost their blue tick verification. Famous politicians like Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were also part of the list of those whose accounts were de-verified.
In response to the incident, Musk has offered free subscriptions to Twitter Blue for some accounts to maintain their verification. Some celebrities such as William Shatner, LeBron James, and Stephen King are reportedly among those to have received a complimentary subscription.
Twitter has been in a precarious situation ever since the platform restricted former U.S. President Donald Trump’s account due to violence and protests in the US Capitol. The incident caused a lot of backlash from its users, which resulted in the platform changing its processes and algorithms around verification, which ultimately led to these de-verifications. In addition to this, the changing landscape of technology has been a contributing factor to the situation.
