New Delhi, Apr 21: Top India sports stars, including the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and double Olympic medallist shuttler PV Sindhu, have lost the blue checkmarks that helped verify their identity on the micro-blogging site Twitter.
The legacy blue checkmarks were previously granted to journalists, public officials, and celebrities for free as a measure against impersonation and spam on the social media platform.
Twitter, which was taken over by business magnate and Tesla CEO Elon Musk last year, however, removed the blue ticks from accounts that don’t pay a monthly subscription for the service on Thursday.
“Tomorrow, 4/20, we are removing legacy verified checkmarks,” the official Twitter Verified account had tweeted on Wednesday.
Apart from the above trio, World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Olympic medallists Saina Nehwal, Neeraj Chopra and Bajrang Punia, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, two-time World Boxing Champion Nikhat Zareen, Sania Mirza, Indian football team skipper Sunil Chhetri, men’s hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh were among a plethora of Indian sporting icons who have lost their blue ticks.