- Friday, April 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
A number of top Indian sportspersons, including former India cricket captains Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli and two-time Olympic medallist shuttler PV Sindhu, have lost the blue checkmarks that helped verify their identities on microblogging site Twitter.
Previously, the blue checkmarks were granted to journalists, public officials and celebrities for free as a measure against impersonation and spam on the social media platform.
The social media giant, which was taken over by Tesla chief Elon Musk last year, however, removed the blue ticks on Thursday (20) from accounts that pay a monthly subscription for the service.
“Tomorrow, 4/20, we are removing legacy verified checkmarks,” the official Twitter Verified account had tweeted on Wednesday (19).
Apart from the trio mentioned above, a number of other accomplished sportspersons from India also lost their blue ticks. They include: cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, shuttler Saina Nehwal, athlete Neeraj Chopra, footballer Sunil Chhetri, hockey player PR Sreejesh, among others.
A number of Indian actors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan also lost the tick. Some big names in politics, such as Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee also lost their bluemarks.
Tennis great Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, footballers Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe and basketball legend Stephen Curry are also no longer “verified” on the social media platform.
From now on, only individuals and organisations that pay for the premium Twitter Blue subscription will get the verified credential on their profiles.
The Twitter Blue subscription is available for a monthly fee of Rs 650 on the web and Rs 900 on mobile devices.
(With PTI inputs)
