Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 23: Even as Twitter has removed blue checkmarks from legacy verified accounts including those of prominent JK politicians like former Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mehbooba Mufti who didn’t pay $8 to retain the badge, the National Conference leader is surprised to see him get back the tick.
While several users had shared instances of the blue tick disappearing from their accounts, as Twitter started the process since April 1, Omar Abdullah who was among the “losers”, has only got it back under “mysterious circumstances.”
“Apparently I’ve paid for Twitter Blue & given them a phone number to verify except that I haven’t. Mr Musk are you paying for mine as well?,” Omar Abdullah Tweeted as he got back the badge.
Other senior politicians including Mehbooba Mufti, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sajad Lone, Syed Altaf Bukhari and Bharatiya Janta Party JK President, Ravinder Raina, however, have been unable to retain the badge due to non-payment of the new fee.
But if Omar also didn’t pay the fee to Twitter, who restored the badge? This has become the topic of debate among the political circles in Kashmir.
“How can only one politician get back the blue tick when the same has been removed for others? This is a matter of serious concern for the politicians of Jammu and Kashmir,” said a political analyst.
“Moreover he (Omar) has actually ridiculed at the Twitter so something is fishy,” he added.
Twitter has finally begun following Elon Musk’s policy of removing all blue ticks that did not pay the monthly fee to keep them. Twitter had over 3,00,000 verified users under the former blue-tick scheme, and most of them were journalists, public figures, athletes, government officials, and movie stars.
Pope Francis, Beyonce, Oprah Winfrey, former US president Donald Trump, Indian politicians Yogi Adityanath and Mamata Banerjee, and superstars Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan are among the notable personalities who lost their verified badges recently.
Twitter, however, has not responded to Omar Abdullah’s questions and ridicule. |
