- Top athletes were among those affected by Elon Musk’s move to de-verify unpaid blue tick subscribers
- Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe were among those who lost their blue ticks on April 20th
- Going forward, one would be required to pay close to 8 USD to get verified
Twitter owner Elon Musk made good his threat to revoke the legacy blue ticks from users who had not paid up for their subscriptions.
The blue tick often proves that the owner of the account is verified and has often helped in distinguishing between real and pseudo accounts.
However, since his takeover of the social media giant, the South African-born tycoon has undertaken several steps to monetize Twitter, key among them is having users pay for the verification badge.
Source: Getty Images
After a couple of postponements, Musk finally de-verified every user who had not paid up by April 20th. Leading Sports personalities led by Cristiano Ronaldo were among those affected by the purge.
Ronaldo is the most followed human being across all social media platforms, with the five-time Ballon d’Or winner boasting of 108 million followers on the blue app alone.
Premier League sensation Erling Haaland also lost his mark alongside his Manchester City teammates Riyad Mahrez, Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish, Aymeric Laporte, among others.
https://twitter.com/Mahrez22/status/1649142981146865677?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1649142981146865677%7Ctwgr%5E1c0d6c12b81f9680e7a67e433ac9dfd4831e0326%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsportsbrief.com%2Fother-sports%2F38763-top-sportspersons-led-by-ronaldo-lose-legacy-badge-elon-musk-leads-twitter-purge%2F
Mahrez revealed that he had no intention of paying for the service.
“Already lost it once, not scared of not having it anymore I’m not paying for these weird ideas lol.”
Kylian Mbappe, who has 12.2M followers, also lost his badge, the same as his PSG teammate, Neymar. Lionel Messi is not on Twitter.
NBA superstar LeBron James had in the past indicated that he had plans of paying for the bluetick, but Musk has since revealed that he will take care of James’ subscription.
Recently crowned UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will also have to go about his Twitter business without the bluetick.
Others include record Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton, four-time NBA winner Steph Curry, 15-time majors winner Tiger Woods and retired tennis legend Roger Federer.
Serena Williams, Megan Rapinoe and Naomi Osaka also no longer have Twitter Blue on their accounts.
Our spot check could not immediately identify any sportsperson who had paid up for the service.
Chelsea’s Mason Mount decided to delete his Twitter account altogether.
“Over the years I’ve thoroughly enjoyed connecting with you all on Twitter. Sadly, the platform is changing, so I have decided to delete my account.”
The monetization of the blue badge brings concerns about someone else creating an account in a celebrity’s name and paying to get verified. One is required to pay 8 USD monthly.
James refuses to pay for Twitter Blue
It was previously reported that Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James has vowed to never pay for the Twitter Blue subscription.
Twitter owner Elon Musk recently announced that as of April 1st, 2023, the social platform will begin removing legacy verified checkmarks. For a user to keep a blue checkmark on Twitter, they must sign up for Twitter Blue at a cost of $8 per month.
Musk’s new policies have caused a stir ever since he bought Twitter in October last year for $44 billion. Moreover, the billionaire wants organizations to pay $1,000 a month to get verified.
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