Twitter accounts without check mark: Ronaldo, Kohli, Neymar, Tendulkar, Nadal, Durant and more

Twitter accounts belonging to Cristiano Ronaldo, Rafael Nadal, Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have been stripped of the legacy verified check mark.

Top athletes from across the world lost their legacy blue ticks on social media service Twitter. The decision that had long been announced finally came into effect on 20 April. The blue check marks, which helped validate their identities and differentiate them from imposters on the microblogging site, have now been taken away.

Elon Musk, who had bought the social media platform for $44 billion last year, has brought in multiple changes to the site since taking over. He had said the website was entering a new era and that the verification marks would be provided on a subscription basis.

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“Tomorrow, 4/20, we are removing legacy verified checkmarks,” the official Twitter Verified account had tweeted on Wednesday.

As a result, multiple athletes, including cricketers, have lost their verification marks. Commenting about it, former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen said, “Who cares if you have a blue tick or not? How does it positively or negatively effect your day? It really shouldn’t!”

“Be happy, be nice and don’t let something so silly annoy you for one sec!”

For the record, Pietersen does have the blue tick.

Indian Premier League franchise Lucknow Supergiants, who had made the final last year, posted a meme of Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpayee the caption, “Blue tick kaha hai? (Where is the blue tick?)”.

Quite a few athletes have lost their verification marks overnight. Footballers Cristiano Ronaldo (108.3 million followers), Neymar (62 million), Kaka (29.4 million), Andres Iniesta (25.4 million), Ronaldinho (21.5 million), Gerard Pique (20.8 million), Wayne Rooney (17.1 million), Kylian Mbappe (12.2 million); NBA stars Kevin Durant (20.8 million), Stephen Curry (17.3 million); tennis players Rafael Nadal (15.7 million), Roger Federer (12.8 million) and golfer Tiger Woods (6.6 million).

Among Indian athletes, notable ones without tick marks are: cricketers Virat Kohli (55.1 million), Sachin Tendulkar (38.6 million), Rohit Sharma (21.7 million), MS Dhoni (8.5 million); shuttlers Saina Nehwal (8.3 million), PV Sindhu (3.1 million); athlete Neeraj Chopra (894.9K); wrestlers Bajrang Punia (362.7K), Vinesh Phogat (331.4K); tennis players Sania Mirza (9.1 million), Leander Paes (1.2 million), Mahesh Bhupathi (949.8K), Rohan Bopanna (361.9K); footballer Sunil Chhetri (1.7 million) and hockey custodian PR Sreejesh (477.2K).

NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James (52.7 million), who had initially said he won’t be paying for the subscription, has kept his blue tick. It is being reported Musk paid out of his own pocket to keep his account verified.

From now, only individuals and organisations that pay for the premium Twitter Blue subscription will get the verified credential on their profiles.

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