It appears that Twitter is now making it official as several renowned users on Elon Musk's social media platform are being stripped of their blue verification badges, which were crucial in authenticating their identity and setting them apart from impersonators.

On Thursday, Twitter finally took action on its promise to revoke the blue verification badges from accounts that fail to pay a monthly fee, after several unsuccessful attempts. Initially, Twitter had roughly 300,000 verified users, including journalists, athletes, and public figures, under the original blue-check system. As a result, these users' verification badges, which previously indicated that their accounts had been authenticated by Twitter, started to vanish from their profiles in the late morning Pacific Time.

Notable users who had their blue verification badges removed on Thursday include Beyoncé, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey, and former President Donald Trump.

Twitter offers various pricing plans to maintain the badges, which start from $8 per month for individual web users, to a minimum of $1,000 per month to authenticate an organization and an additional $50 per month for each associated or employee account. Unlike the previous blue-check system granted during Twitter's pre-Musk era, Twitter does not authenticate individual accounts.

Despite having blue verification badges, several prominent users such as basketball player LeBron James, author Stephen King, and Star Trek actor William Shatner have expressed reluctance to join the payment program. However, as of Thursday, all three users had verification badges on their accounts, suggesting that they had paid for the service.

On the other hand, Stephen King has publicly stated that he did not pay for the verification badge.

In a tweet posted on Thursday, Stephen King disputed the presence of a subscription to Twitter Blue and a phone number on his Twitter account, both of which were falsely displayed. He clarified that he had not subscribed to the service nor provided his phone number.

In response to Stephen King's tweet, Elon Musk replied with "You're welcome namaste" and in another tweet, he mentioned that he personally paid for a few users. Later, he specified that he had paid for King, Shatner, and James.

Earlier in the week, singer Dionne Warwick had criticized Twitter's verification system, calling it "an absolute mess" in a tweet.

Dionne Warwick expressed concern that due to Twitter's current state, anyone could impersonate her. She had previously stated that she would not pay for Twitter Blue, citing that the monthly fee could instead be spent on her favorite lattes.

On Thursday, Warwick's white check mark on a blue background, which represented her verification badge, was removed from her account.

On Thursday, a popup message appeared for users who still had their blue verification badges, stating that their accounts were verified because they had subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number. However, verifying a phone number only confirms that the user has a phone number and has access to it, but it does not authenticate their identity.

Not only celebrities and journalists, but also government agencies, non-profits, and public-service accounts worldwide lost their verification badges on Thursday, raising concerns that Twitter may no longer be considered a reliable platform for obtaining accurate and timely information from authentic sources, particularly during emergencies.

Twitter provides gold checks for "verified organizations" and gray checks for government organizations and their affiliates. However, it is not clear how Twitter decides to grant these verification badges, and on Thursday, many previously verified agency and public-service accounts did not display any verification badges.

The official Twitter account of the New York City government, which previously had a blue check, tweeted on Thursday to clarify that it was the only authentic account representing the New York City government, in an attempt to alleviate any confusion caused by the removal of its verification badge.

A newly created spoof account with 36 followers (also without a blue check), disagreed: “No, you’re not. THIS account is the only authentic Twitter account representing and run by the New York City Government.”

Soon, another spoof account — purporting to be Pope Francis — weighed in too: “By the authority vested in me, Pope Francis, I declare @NYC_GOVERNMENT the official New York City Government. Peace be with you.”

Travis Brown, a Berlin-based developer who creates software to track social media, analyzed the situation and found that less than 5% of the verified accounts from before the changeover had paid to join Twitter Blue by Thursday.

While Elon Musk's decision to remove blue checks from non-paying users has upset some high-profile users, it has also pleased some right-wing figures and Musk supporters who felt that the checks were unfair. However, it remains unclear whether this move will generate significant revenue for the social media platform, which has traditionally relied on advertising for the majority of its income.

Similarweb, a digital intelligence platform, conducted an analysis of how many users signed up for Twitter Blue on desktop computers and found only 116,000 confirmed sign-ups last month, which, at $8 or $11 per month, does not represent a significant revenue stream. This analysis did not include accounts purchased via mobile apps.

Since acquiring Twitter for $44 billion in October, Musk has been attempting to boost the struggling platform's revenue by encouraging more users to pay for a premium subscription. However, his actions also reflect his belief that the blue verification marks have become an undeserved or "corrupt" status symbol for prominent individuals, journalists, and others who were granted verification for free by Twitter's previous leadership.

Around 14 years ago, Twitter started using blue check marks to tag profiles. One of the main reasons for this was to combat misinformation from impersonating accounts and protect celebrities from being impersonated. The majority of verified accounts, or "legacy blue checks," include politicians, activists, journalists, and individuals who unexpectedly find themselves in the news, rather than just household names.

When Musk took over Twitter, one of his first product moves was to launch a service that granted blue checks to anyone willing to pay $8 a month. However, the service was quickly flooded with impostor accounts, including those pretending to be Nintendo, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, and Musk's own businesses, Tesla and SpaceX. Twitter had to temporarily suspend the service just days after its launch.

The relaunched service costs $8 a month for web users and $11 a month for users of its iPhone or Android apps. Subscribers can expect to see fewer ads, post longer videos, and have their tweets featured more prominently.