The verified, blue tick. For years it was the way people could separate reliable sources and famous figures from others across Twitter, but since Elon Musk bought the company, things have changed drastically.
At the time of his multi-billion dollar purchase, he gave all Twitter users a chance to get a blue-tick of their own by paying a monthly fee, but those already verified did also keep their ticks through legacy.
On Tuesday, Twitter announced that all legacy checkmarked accounts would have their ticks removed and would have to pay the monthly subscription to Twitter Blue if they wanted to keep their verified status.
Footballers furious over losing their blue ticks
Since the removal of the blue ticks, it's safe to say that Twitter feeds have been full of complaints, moans and outrage. You might think that those so famous would hardly care about being verified on the platform, after all a lot are household names and don't need a tick to cement their place as being well known.
That is far from the case, with a number of professional footballers sharing their views on the platform.
Damn Elon what did u do lol
— Aymeric Laporte (@Laporte) April 20, 2023
Already lost it once, not scared of not having it anymore 😂😂 I'm not paying for this weird ideas lol
— Riyad Mahrez (@Mahrez22) April 20, 2023
This is really getting weird lol wyd Elon ?
— Michy Batshuayi (@mbatshuayi) April 20, 2023
Some of the other high profile names who have lost their legacy checkmark include Cristiano Ronaldo, cricketer Virat Kohli, Donald Trump and even the Pope, but one man who has proudly kept his blue tick is Gary Lineker.
The former England striker admitted that he had actually been subscribed to Twitter Blue for a while, but only to edit tweets he had already sent out.
We're not quite sure if that's the real reason, but Lineker can certainly afford the monthly subscription anyway.
Same here. 😏 https://t.co/5jnxiWURR5
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) April 21, 2023
Gary Neville is another ex-verified account that has taken aim at Musk, claiming that "Twitter is an odd place since Musk has taken it on".
Blue ticks gone! 👋. Moved to Following function over For You (so much crap being thrown at us). Twitter is an odd place since Musk has taken it on!
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) April 21, 2023
Former Ireland and Liverpool player and current commentator Jim Beglin also took to Twitter, wondering where his blue tick had vanished to.
Anyone seen my blue tick? 😂
— Jim Beglin (@jimbeglin) April 20, 2023
Elon Musk has certainly ruffled some feathers in the football world with his latest drastic change to the platform, but we're certain that we might see some of these accounts with a blue tick beside them in the near future.
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