Twitterati ask Elon Musk to do away with blue ticks

Some users felt that the allocation of the blue tick, the platform’s own version of verified accounts, is hindering the idea of virtual equality.

Hyderabad: Tesla CEO Elon Musk closed his $44 billion deal to take over Twitter on Friday, and tweeted, “the bird is freed.”

Hours after the news broke online, Twitterati came up with a request addressed to Twitter’s new boss. Some users felt that the allocation of the blue tick, the platform’s own version of verified accounts, is hindering the idea of virtual equality.

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With #Remove_all_BlueTicks, users are asking Musk to do away with the practice of giving blue ticks to individuals on the platform.

Dilip Mandal, a journalist who enjoys the blue tick himself, tweeted, “Pl Support: Dear @elonmusk, Twitter #BlueTick is unequal, discriminatory, hierarchical and arbitrary. It creates an apartheid in conversations. It is also against internet equality. Please change the system. #Democratise_Verification #Remove_all_BlueTicks.”

“Freedom of expression is not enough. We need equality in conversations. Let everyone have it. Check their credentials,” he added.

While some users are calling for abandoning blue ticks as the process of allocating them is undemocratic, others argue that their existence is vital.

“Bluetick are given to identify who are real famous/known people or who are fake account. If blue tick is removed then how will we know who is real and who is fake (sic),” argued one user.

Another irritated user wrote, “Clearly this country has no other better work. Go do something useful to help the country. Ignore all the important happenings in this country and is worried about a blue tick. Like Elon spent 44 billion to listen to your advice.”

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