Twitter has finally started removing “legacy” blue ticks from verified accounts, with some of the world’s best-known figures losing the verification sign.

The Pope, author JK Rowling, football star Cristiano Ronaldo, US rapper Jay-Z, TV stars Ant and Dec, and actor Richard E Grant have lost their blue ticks on the social networking site, along with the Labour and Conservative parties.

The only blue ticks left will be those with a Twitter Blue subscription, which costs up to £11 a month in the UK, or those who are affiliated with the company.

Accounts with different coloured checkmarks will keep those – gold indicates they are a verified business, while grey means they represent a government, multilateral organisation or official.

It brings the curtain down on one of the most tumultuous elements of Mr Musk‘s stewardship of Twitter since his controversial $44bn (£38bn) takeover last October.

One of Mr Musk’s first major decisions was to allow users to pay for a tick, declaring “power to the people”, but the move backfired, leaving the platform awash with accounts posing as brands, celebrities, and politicians.

One purporting to be former US president George W Bush tweeted “I miss killing Iraqis”, while another disguised as Nintendo’s official account posted a picture of Super Mario making a rude gesture.

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Twitter paused the rollout of paid-for ticks as a result, introduced different coloured ticks to distinguish between governments, businesses, and people, and relaunched Twitter Blue a month later.

Mr Musk has long said the changes were with a view to completely removing so-called “legacy” blue checkmarks, which Twitter introduced shortly after it first launched to help people know which accounts are legitimate.

In a final controversy before setting a date for their removal, Twitter made the old verified ticks indistinguishable from those who had paid for one.

The likes of NBA icon LeBron James and the Associated Press have said they will not pay to keep their ticks, although James still appeared to have his on Thursday evening, while the Associated Press had a gold one.

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