PV Sindhu, Neeraj Chopra and other top Indian athletes lose their Twitter blue tick
Top Indian sports figures, such as the iconic Neeraj Chopra, Virat Kohli, and PV Sindhu will no longer have the blue checkmarks that served as identification proof on Twitter. As a safeguard against spam and impersonation, prominent figures, and celebrities used to receive the blue checkmarks.
However, on Thursday, Twitter, which Elon Musk took over last year, deleted the blue ticks from users that don't pay a monthly membership for the service. The official Twitter Verified account posted on Wednesday, "Tomorrow, 4/20, we are removing legacy verified checkmarks."
Along with the aforementioned three, many other Indian sporting legends have lost their blue ticks, including men's hockey goalie PR Sreejesh, World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni, Olympic medalists Saina Nehwal, Bajrang Punia, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, two-time World Boxing Champion Nikhat Zareen, and Sania Mirza.
The social media site no longer considers tennis greats Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, footballers Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe, and basketball icon Stephen Curry to be "verified" users. From this point forward, the verified credential will only appear on the profiles of people and organisations that have purchased the premium Twitter Blue membership.
On the web and for mobile devices, the monthly cost of the Twitter Blue subscription is Rs 650 and Rs 900, respectively.
(With PTI inputs)