Bilal Ahmed 
The move has attracted criticism for “false advertising” because the boilerplate disclaimer for such users inaccurately claims that their status was granted because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue.
The social network abolished its old verification system on 20 April, removing the blue checkmark that indicated an account was genuine from all ‘legacy’ users.
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The move left only those users who had paid for Twitter’s subscription service with the checkmark. However, most verified users chose not to pay for the service.
Just 500 of 400,000 legacy users signed up, and almost as many canceled their subscription at the same time, leading to a net revenue increase of less than $300 a month.
As a result, a blue tick came to mark out a user as someone who had paid for the privilege. This led to a grassroots campaign to “block the blue”, with users blocking subscribers on sight.
Many re-verified users have disclaimed their new status. English law protects celebrities against the tort of “passing off”, when goodwill is harmed through misrepresentation. Celebrities can use passing off to protect the goodwill in their celebrity.
Twitter’s decision to implement a subscription-based model for its “blue tick” verification system has faced pushback from users, including celebrities. The move has led to a grassroots campaign to “block the blue”, with users committing to blocking subscribers on sight.
While some VIPs or celebrities have been granted blue ticks for free, others have been marked as “paid-for” verification, including deceased individuals like actor Paul Walker, chef Anthony Bourdain, and journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
This has led some to question the legality of marking their accounts as having “paid for” a service they did not request.
Despite this, Twitter has reinstated the “verified” status free of charge to celebrity users of the platform, but the company’s decision to do so without distinguishing between paid-for and free users has led to criticism for false advertising.
Twitter has a feature called ‘Blue-Ticks’ which shows that an account is genuine. Twitter started charging people $8 per month for this feature, but many people, including famous people, don’t want to pay for it.
Twitter is giving some famous people ‘Blue-Ticks’ for free, but many people think it’s not fair. These famous people have helped Twitter become popular, so some people think Twitter also owes them.
Read more | Benefits of Twitter Blue Tick
As Twitter continues to try to impose its subscription model, it remains to be seen whether users will accept or reject it, given the platform’s reliance on celebrities and other high-profile users.
