Twitter legacy users give Musk the cold shoulder as less than 5% accounts sign-up for paid blue tick

Twitter recently removed several legacy verified blue ticks from profiles of notable figures such as politicians, celebrities, and athletes. This move has generated curiosity among users, leading to speculations about the number of users who opted to pay for the newly launched Twitter Blue service.

However, Travis Brown, a Berlin-based software developer of social media tracking software, has claimed that less than 5% of legacy verified accounts actually paid to join Twitter Blue.

“Update for the day after: just before the purge yesterday, 19,469 of the 407k legacy verified accounts I had identified in early April had Twitter Blue. Today that number for those same accounts is 19,497, for a net increase of 28 accounts,” Travis tweeted.

The removal of the blue tick verification symbol from profiles has caused a stir among Twitter users, especially those affected by the change. While the verification symbol was initially intended to indicate the authenticity of accounts, Twitter’s recent policy changes appear to be aimed solely at revenue generation.

Twitter on Thursday removed the legacy blue check from profiles of several high-profile celebrities such as Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Yogi Adityanath and more. After much uproar, the company reinstated these checks on Saturday without making it clear if these accounts had paid for it. However, there are reports that the company is restoring the blue tick for accounts with a certain number of followers.

The legacy verification system on Twitter came into existence prior to Musk. It was considered more sort of a status symbol and was given free of cost to accounts that were considered “active, notable and authentic” by Twitter. The new policy change now brings the verification check under Twitter Blue subscription which costs a monthly fee of Rs 650 on the web and Rs 900 on mobile devices.