• Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, and BlackPink are among those celebrities who lost their Twitter checkmarks
• This comes after Twitter CEO Elon Musk removed the badges of celebrities who are not subscribers to Twitter Blue
• Elon also reportedly chose to keep those of William Shatner, LeBron James and Stephen King by personally paying for them

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has already removed verification badges from celebrities who are not Twitter  Blue subscribers.

According to Twitter blogger @PopBase, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, and Kpop's biggest girl group BlackPink had their badges removed. The news outlet claimed this is due to Elon removing the "legacy verification" feature on Twitter.

Variety reports that the legacy verification feature awarded Twitter badges to anyone it deemed active, prominent, and legitimate. With millions of followers on the platform, the celebrities were given badges to distinguish them from fan accounts and imposters.

Check out @PopBase's tweet below:

Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, and BlackPink stans livid after the faves lost Twitter's checkmarks

Pop culture fans were not happy with Elon Musk's decision and criticised him for not thinking things thoroughly. Many people predicted that there would be a slew of celebrity imposters now.

@murulix said:

"This is so ridiculous. The whole point with the checkmark was that people could tell who the actual celebrity is."

@scionjay96 shared:

"I'm so confused. If celebrities no longer have a blue check, what's the appeal for someone to want one now? Wasn't that why some people were rushing to pay for one? If Beyoncé isn't verified, why would I want to be?"

@agapethamar posted:

"This is the dumbest thing ever. Like, why is Beyoncé not verified, but a random 14-year-old stan is?"

@cherryne0n replied:

"He literally deleted a basic tool of social media. He is so goofy."

@capscorefour commented:

"Elon just made it incredibly easy to impersonate a celebrity. Even if celebrity profiles start subscribing to Twitter Blue, a random person on the internet could do the same thing."

@fazpo also said:

"Some random people and stan accounts being verified but not celebrities is insane if you think about it."

@obxbellarke added:

"They look like stan accounts now. I’m crying "

Elon Musk reveals he's paying for William Shatner, LeBron James and Stephen King's Twitter checkmarks

@PopBase has been keeping everyone updated on Elon's movements. They also stated that the controversial Twitter CEO said some celebs would keep their checkmarks without subscribing to Twitter Blue.

Musk is said to be paying for William Shatner, LeBron James and Stephen King to keep their verification badges.

"Elon Musk reveals he is ‘personally paying’ the Twitter Blue subscriptions of some celebrities to keep their checkmark, such as Lebron James and Stephen King."

See the tweet below:

Akon claims his account was hacked after blasting Elon Musk for making people pay for Twitter verification

In other stories, Briefly News reported that Akon rubbished reports that he posted a tweet blasting new Twitter owner Elon Musk.

The post shared on the singer's page suggested that making people pay for Twitter verifications was wrong.

Taking to his page, the Senegalese star debunked his previous post and claimed that his account was hacked. Akon also issued a stern warning to the hackers who are using his verified Twitter account to spread fake news.