Several high-profile individuals, including Al-Nassr’s Cristiano Ronaldo, have had their verified status on Twitter removed after CEO Elon Musk decided to pull the plug on verified accounts.
Cristiano Ronaldo is one of many celebrities who have lost their verified status on Twitter as CEO Elon Musk has removed the so-called “legacy” checks from their profiles.
Ronaldo, who has over 108 million followers, is no longer displaying the verification badge next to his name.
This change is part of Musk’s new strategy, which involves removing the verification badges for free and instead charging users for the privilege as part of Twitter’s new ‘Twitter Blue’ scheme.
The decision to remove the blue verification tick is believed to have been prompted by the debate over who was deemed eligible for the mark, as well as to improve the company’s revenue through the implementation of a paid scheme.
This move has caused some surprise, as shown by Aymeric Laporte’s tweet: “Damn Elon what did u do lol”.
The Portuguese striker has not given any statement regarding the matter, and it is not known whether he will receive the verification badge in the coming days or will have to pay for it.
According to reports, Musk paid for certain high-profile individuals to retain their blue ticks, such as basketball icon LeBron James, but it appears that Ronaldo did not make the cut.
