Blue ticks are a thing of the past for many users (Picture: STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Thousands have lost their blue ticks on Twitter, marking the latest chapter of Elon Musk’s controversial takeover of the site.
The coloured checkmarks were used to signify accounts confirmed to have ‘verified’ status.
Government figures, brands, sport stars and journalists were among those to boast the blue ticks.
But Twitter users appear to be in mourning this evening, after the symbols suddenly vanished for many accounts.
Musk has previously claimed there are too too many ‘corrupt’ verified accounts on the platform.
The news of the incoming blue tick purge was known, although timings of its rollout had been unclear.
You can salvage yours, as part of the Twitter Blue subscription service, but it will cost £8.
The ticks have been removed from the some of the most high-profile accounts on the platform, including those of the Pope, cricketer Virat Kohli and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.
Elon Musk claimed there were too many ‘corrupt’ accounts on the site (Picture: PA)
To add to the confusion, some legacy accounts seemed to retain their ticks if linked to a verified organisation, including Barack Obama’s personal page.
Twitter Verified Organisations enables bodies of ‘all types’, including businesses, non-profits and government institutions, to sign up and manage their verification and to affiliate and verify any related account.
But it costs a base price of £950 a month.
In November, Musk unveiled his new paid Twitter Blue subscription that promised to come with a verified blue check mark.
Twitter has gone through several controversial changes (Picture: Avishek Das/SOPA Images/Shutterstock)
Many soon mobilised to slam the monthly fee proposals.
Comedian Kathy Burke branded the new billionaire owner a ‘cheeky b***h’ in an expletive-laden rant, saying he should be paying her and not the other way around.
Horror author King, who is behind iconic works including The Shining, Carrie, It and Misery, also lashed out at the proposed change.
‘F**k that, they should pay me,’ he tweeted.
Elsewhere in the Musk-verse, Starship, the largest rocket ever built, exploded shortly after take-off this afternoon.
The billionaire’s company, SpaceX, still hailed the mission a success, however.
The rocket blasted off at 2.33pm BST (8.33am CT) from SpaceX’s Texas HQ.
Clearing the launchpad and tower, its 33 engines thrust the rocket skyward at hundreds of miles an hour.
After the launch, which Mr Musk watched from the control room, he tweeted: ‘Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.’
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Elon Musk made the change to weed out what he called ‘corrupt’ accounts.