Even The Pope Has Lost His Twitter Blue Tick

Pope Francis, Cristiano Ronaldo and Beyonce are among the first big-name casualties as Twitter removed the “blue tick” from legacy verified accounts.

Twitter Verified tweeted that legacy checkmarks would be removed from the site on April 20, with the main way of getting a blue tick being to sign up for Twitter Blue, which includes an £8 monthly fee for those based in the UK.

The legacy checkmarks began disappearing towards the tail end of Thursday.

Some of the biggest accounts losing their ticks include former president Donald Trump, as well as the official Twitter page for the Pope.

Some legacy accounts seemed to retain their ticks if linked to a verified organisation, including Barack Obama’s personal page.

Elon Musk had promised to take away all of Twitter’s blue check marks doled out to Hollywood stars, professional athletes, business leaders, authors and journalists unless they start buying a monthly subscription to the social media service.

Musk’s goal was to shove the advertising-dependent platform he bought for $44 billion last year into a pay-to-play model.

Twitter Verified Organisations enables bodies of “all types”, including businesses, non-profits and government institutions, to sign up and manage their verification and to affiliate and verify any related account. But it costs a base price of £950 a month.

Some were wistfully saying goodbye to their status ...