Twitter begins removing blue checks from users who don't pay
San Francisco (US) (AP): This time it's for real.
Many of Twitter's high-profile users are losing the blue checks that helped verify their identity and distinguish them from impostors on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform.
After several false starts, Twitter began making good on its promise on Thursday to remove the blue checks from accounts that don't pay a monthly fee to keep them. Twitter had about 300,000 verified users under the original blue-check system many of them journalists, athletes and public figures. The checks which used to mean the account was verified by Twitter to be who it says it is began disappearing from these users' profiles late morning Pacific Time.
High-profile users who lost their blue checks on Thursday included Beyonc , Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey and former President Donald Trump.
The costs of keeping the marks range from USD 8 a month for individual web users to a starting price of USD 1,000 monthly to verify an organisation, plus USD 50 monthly for each affiliate or employee account.
Twitter does not verify the individual accounts, as was the case with the previous blue check doled out during the platform's pre-Musk administration.
Celebrity users, from basketball star LeBron James to author Stephen King and Star Trek's William Shatner, have balked at joining although on Thursday, all three had blue checks indicating that the account paid for verification.
King, for one, said he hadn't paid.
"My Twitter account says I've subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven't. My Twitter account says I've given a phone number. I haven't," King tweeted Thursday. "Just so you know."
In a reply to King's tweet, Musk said "You're welcome namaste" and in another tweet he said he's "paying for a few personally".
Singer Dionne Warwick tweeted earlier in the week that the site's verification system "is an absolute mess."
"The way Twitter is going anyone could be me now," Warwick said. She had earlier vowed not to pay for Twitter Blue, saying the monthly fee "could (and will) be going toward my extra hot lattes."
On Thursday, Warwick lost her blue check (which is actually a white check mark in a blue background).
For users who still had a blue check Thursday, a popup message indicated that the account "is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number." Verifying a phone number simply means that the person has a phone number and they verified that they have access to it it does not confirm the person's identity.
It wasn't just celebrities and journalists who lost their blue checks Thursday. Many government agencies, nonprofits and public-service accounts around the world found themselves no longer verified, raising concerns that Twitter could lose its status as a platform for getting accurate, up-to-date information from authentic sources, including in emergencies.
While Twitter offers gold checks for "verified organizations" and gray checks for government organisations and their affiliates, it's not clear how the platform doles these out and they were not seen Thursday on many previously verified agency and public service accounts.
The official Twitter account of the New York City government, which earlier had a blue check, tweeted on Thursday that "This is an authentic Twitter account representing the New York City Government This is the only account for @NYCGov run by New York City government" in an attempt to clear up confusion.
A newly created spoof account with 36 followers (also without a blue check), disagreed: "No, you're not. THIS account is the only authentic Twitter account representing and run by the New York City Government."
Soon, another spoof account purporting to be Pope Francis weighed in too: "By the authority vested in me, Pope Francis, I declare @NYC_GOVERNMENT the official New York City Government. Peace be with you."
Fewer than 5 per cent of legacy verified accounts appear to have paid to join Twitter Blue as of Thursday, according to an analysis by Travis Brown, a Berlin-based developer of software for tracking social media.
Musk's move has riled up some high-profile users and pleased some right-wing figures and Musk fans who thought the marks were unfair. But it is not an obvious money-maker for the social media platform that has long relied on advertising for most of its revenue.
Digital intelligence platform Similarweb analyzed how many people signed up for Twitter Blue on their desktop computers and only detected 116,000 confirmed sign-ups last month, which at
8 or
11 per month does not represent a major revenue stream. The analysis did not count accounts bought via mobile apps.
After buying San Francisco-based Twitter for
44 billion in October, Musk has been trying to boost the struggling platform's revenue by pushing more people to pay for a premium subscription. But his move also reflects his assertion that the blue verification marks have become an undeserved or "corrupt" status symbol for elite personalities, news reporters and others granted verification for free by Twitter's previous leadership.
Twitter began tagging profiles with a blue check mark starting about 14 years ago. Along with shielding celebrities from impersonators, one of the main reasons was to provide an extra tool to curb misinformation coming from accounts impersonating people. Most "legacy blue checks," including the accounts of politicians, activists and people who suddenly find themselves in the news, as well as little-known journalists at small publications around the globe, are not household names.
One of Musk's first product moves after taking over Twitter was to launch a service granting blue checks to anyone willing to pay
8 a month. But it was quickly inundated by impostor accounts, including those impersonating Nintendo, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Musk's businesses Tesla and SpaceX, so Twitter had to temporarily suspend the service days after its launch.
The relaunched service costs USD 8 a month for web users and USD 11 a month for users of its iPhone or Android apps. Subscribers are supposed to see fewer ads, be able to post longer videos and have their tweets featured more prominently.
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FIR registered against nurse, doc, pvt hospital mgt after finger of infant partially severed
Bengaluru (PTI): A case was registered against the nurse, doctor and management of a private hospital here for alleged negligence after the finger of a six-month-old baby boy was partially severed during the discharge process, police said on Wednesday.
According to police, in his complaint, Vijay Kumar said that on February 19, he took his six-month-old child to a private hospital in Indiranagar here for consultation after he developed fever and cold. As per the doctor's advise, he was admitted for further treatment at about 10.57 am.
He was to be discharged at 3 pm on February 24 and accordingly, the hospital bill was paid while the discharge process was going on in the ward.
At the time of discharge, the nurse on duty removed the drip. While removing the dressing, she allegedly cut the tip of the little finger on the child's left hand. Due to this, the child suffered severe pain and injury, he alleged, as per the FIR.
"Immediately thereafter, the child was taken to the emergency ward, where dressing was done and a plaster was applied. Initially, the concerned staff informed us that it was not a major injury and that since the child is small, it would heal on its own. However, due to their negligence, my 6-month-old child sustained a serious injury to the little finger of his left hand, causing immense pain and damage," the FIR read.
Based on the complaint, a case was registered under section 125 (b) (act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against the nurse, doctor and the management of the hospital and the matter is being investigated.
