Countless celebrities have seen their coveted Twitter blue ticks disappear after refusing to pay for verification.
For years, certain Twitter accounts – such as those belonging to celebrities, public figures and companies – came with a famous blue tick, which indicated that the accounts were genuine and had been verified in order to prevent impersonation.
However, soon after taking over the social media giant for a cool $US44 billion in October, eccentric billionaire Elon Musk announced plans to make verification subscription-only, even for legacy accounts that had long been verified.
Under the controversial new rules, blue ticks are now starting to be removed from accounts which do not pay for it.
Verification doesn’t come cheap, with an $US8 ($11.80) per month price tag for a blue tick for individuals, and $US1000 ($1484) per month for a gold one for organisations.
Grey ticks will be in place for government-affiliated accounts or multilateral organisations.
Beyonce, Pope Francis, Donald Trump, Cristiano Ronaldo and the Prince and Princess of Wales are among massive celebrities to lose the Twitter blue tick today, and a number of well known organisations, including the New York Times, have lost their blue ticks as well.
However, 10,000 of the most-followed organisations on Twitter will be exempt from the new paid verification rules.
Meanwhile, many famous figures, including basketball star LeBron James, rapper Ice-T and author Stephen King, still have their ticks despite publicly claiming they would not pay for verification.
Musk himself has added to the confusion after tweeting he was personally paying for some celebrities’ blue checks – specifically Star Trek star William Shatner, LeBron and King – although Twitter insiders have also claimed the removal of the ticks will be a gradual process as it is done manually.
Musk also hit out at the New York Times’ verification stance.
“The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting”, he posted.
“Also, their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhoea. It’s unreadable.”
British comedian Richard Osman was among the many Twitter users who took to the platform to mourn the blue ticks.
“Farewell blue tick, old friend. Don’t forget, always set your feed to ‘Following’ rather than ‘For You’. Then you’ll keep seeing the people you actually follow, and not people who’ve paid for attention,” he tweeted, while others couldn’t resist poking fun at the situation.
“My blue tick has gone. I’m not sure if I’m really me or not,” Ricky Gervais tweeted, while actor Ben Stiller cracked: “No blue check, still feel like me.”
“So sad … am I … still me?” former Daily Show host Jon Stewart tweeted.
Countless regular users also took to Twitter to mark the change, noting that “my blue tick has passed away” and “RIP to my blue tick”.
The change has also sparked fears that fraudsters and troublemakers will now be able to impersonate famous people or companies with greater ease, now the verification is removed from so many accounts.
And it’s already started happening.
Soon after former US President Donald Trump’s blue tick was removed, a fake account using his name and image sprang up, tweeting: I’m back on Twitter and I am gay”.
A fake JK Rowling account also posted an “apology” to the trans community.
The blue tick drama comes as Musk had billions wiped from his net worth in a horror 24 hours.
From a disappointing first-quarter result for his electric car company Tesla, to an experimental Starship rocket exploding in the sky, and the removal of millions of Twitter users’ legacy blue checkmarks, it has been a tumultuous time for the CEO.
Tesla’s first-quarter result disappointed investors, causing its shares to plummet by 9.75 per cent on Thursday to $A212.45.
According to Bloomberg, the dip in Tesla’s share price immediately impacted Musk’s net worth, which dropped by $A16.8 billion. However, despite the drop, Musk remains the world’s second-richest person, with a fortune of $A212.8 billion, mainly attributed to his stake in Tesla, including shares and options.