Elon Musk’s Blue Tick Policy Affecting Popularity Of Celebs, Says Ex-Twitter India Head

Twitter has a large user base in India and is the top platform used by celebrities to stay in touch with their fans. Most movie stars, sportsmen as well as industrialists have Twitter handles and are followed by millions of fans. As most are aware, last month Elon Musk removed the iconic blue tick from profiles until a payment was made. The blue tick was made a paid service.

The blue tick mark system was first implemented by Twitter in 2009 to assist users in determining which accounts of public interest were legitimate and which were impersonators or parody accounts. Previously, Twitter did not charge for verification. However, after the implementation of the new system, reportedly many Indian celebrities have complained of inconvenience.

Manish Maheshwari, the former head of Twitter India, asserted that after the most recent verification policy upgrade, several celebrities approached him to discuss their loss of control over their Twitter presence.

Maheshwari complained in a letter to Elon Musk that the latest verification policy change was made without consulting celebrities and entrepreneurs like Ratan Tata, Amitabh Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, A.R. Rahman, Vir Das, and Ram Charan, whose contributions have been crucial to Twitter’s success in India. Maheshwari claims that this policy change has “adversely affected” the reputation of these individuals online.

He added some guidelines that Twitter head Elon Musk should continue to adhere to to help the social media platform develop a strong economic model.

First, he advised that before enacting significant policy changes that may have an impact on celebrities, trust should be rebuilt with them through participation in conversations. Second, he advocated helping creators because they are Twitter’s backbone. While retaining creative freedom, Twitter should improve its distribution and revenue tools and chances.