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Ex-Twitter India chief clarifies his ‘afterlife’ tweet on Sushant Singh Rajput
Manish Maheshwari said he only intended to bring out the ‘chaos and confusion’ surrounding the blue tick on the late actor's Twitter account.
Responding to fan outrage over his tweet on Sushant Singh Rajput, former Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari clarified the intent of his post was to question the ‘chaos and confusion’ around the actor's Twitter handle, which has a blue tick despite him being no more.
“The intent of the tweet was to bring out the chaos and confusion surrounding the #BlueTick. I have great respect for @itsSSR. Loved his acting in the #MSDhoni movie,” tweeted Maheshwari on Thursday.
On April 26, the former Twitter India chief had posted the following tweet, also tagging Elon Musk, the world's second-richest person who bought the social networking platform in October last year: “Wondering how @itsSSR verified his phone number @elonmusk? Either you are lying or people have figured out a way to carry their phone in afterlife.”
The post, however, left the late actor's fans fuming. "Sir, As a fan of @itsSSR, I request you not to drag Sushant in all these. Your concern is with his blue tick or how verified his phone number? FYI, many more people got back their blue tick, who r no more & I hope U know how all users get their number verified while signing in," said a user.
"Trying to stay relevant using Sushant’s name! Pathetic," said another.
Sushant Singh Rajput, 34, was found dead in his apartment in Mumbai in June 2020.
What was the context of Maheshwari's tweet?
On April 11, Musk issued a 'deadline,' saying that from April 20, the microblogging website will begin removing blue checkmarks for accounts that do not subscribe to Twitter Blue, a paid monthly subscription service ($7.99), which grants blue ticks, also called verification badges, to users. Accordingly, on April 20, these were removed from handles of non-subscribers.
Two days later, however, the badges were reinstated for several users, all of whom said it was done without their knowledge and despite them not paying for it. It was observed that the checkmarks were back for accounts with at least 1 million followers; interestingly, these got reinstated for some deceased persons (including Rajput) as well.
At the time of his untimely demise, the Bollywood star had 2.4 million followers.
It is not yet known, meanwhile, how the badges were restored without subscription, including for deceased people.
