Twitter took away the blue verification stamp from Pope Francis

Currently profile Pope Francis has a gray badge that indicates a verified account that belongs to a government or international organization. The profile works in several languages, including Polish. Franciszek’s profile in our language is followed by over a million people.

The papal Twitter account was opened in December 2012, during the pontificate of Benedict XVI. In January 2013, its version in Latin, the official language of Vatican documents, was launched.

Twitter introduced blue verification stamps in 2009 as a result of a lawsuit brought against the platform by sports manager Tony La Russa, whose account was impersonated. From now on, the blue symbol was a proof of account authenticity and a sign of status, both public organizations and the most famous figures in the world of entertainment, sports and media had it.

However when Elon Musk acquired the platform last year, and announced that blue badges will be awarded only to those who order – and pay for – a subscription to the service (the cost is eight dollars a month).

>> The American Journal will not pay for the Twitter verification badge

On Thursday, the company began phasing out the old free blue stamps. “Concerns have been raised that Twitter is taking away another tool to distinguish genuine account holders from impersonating fraudsters,” NBC wrote. The process was not without problems: some users lost their stamps – although they should not have, others gained them – although they did not pay for them.

“Goodbye blue stamp. From now on, how pathetic, only friends and loved ones will verify me” – one of the users quoted by the portal summed up his loss.

Apart from the head of the Catholic Church, the stamps were lost, among others Bill GatesKim Kardashian and Oprah Winfrey.