All of the celebrities' blue ticks have vanished from Twitter! Is this Elon Musk's latest prank?

In light of Elon Musk's '4/20' deadline on Friday, Twitter has erased all legacy 'Blue Ticks' for individual accounts. If a person has a legacy verified account on Twitter with a blue tick, he or she will lose it or will have to pay to keep the blue tick. Only accounts enrolled to Twitter Blue will retain their blue checkmarks.

This means that if you have a legacy verified account with a blue checkmark on Twitter, you will now have to pay to keep it. Only accounts enrolled to Twitter Blue will retain their blue checkmarks.

Twitter Blue is priced differently depending on your location and how you sign up. In the United States, iOS or Android users pay $11 per month or $114.99 per year, while web users pay $8 per month or $84 per year. Twitter Blue costs 900 rupees per month for iOS, 650 rupees per month for web, and 9400 rupees per year for iOS. Monthly cost for Android users is 900, while annual pricing is 9,400.

Twitter Verified account has issued an update saying, "To remain verified on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue here."

Twitter states that, “Verified Organizations is a new way for organizations and their affiliates to distinguish themselves on Twitter. Rather than relying on Twitter to be the sole arbiter of truth for which accounts should be verified, vetted organizations that sign up for Verified Organizations are in full control of vetting and verifying accounts they’re affiliated with. Accounts affiliated with the organization will receive an affiliate badge on their profile with the organization’s logo, and will be featured on the organization’s Twitter profile, indicating their affiliation. All organizations are vetted before they can join Verified Organizations."

Musk is making the switch to paid verification in order to generate much-needed revenue for Twitter. The social media platform has also launched a program for businesses and organizations to charge $1,000 per month for verification badges (gold for brands, companies and nonprofits; grey for governments).

The microblogging site first introduced verified accounts in 2009 to help users identify that celebrities, politicians, companies and brands, news organizations, and other accounts of public interest were genuine and not impostors or parody accounts. The company didn't previously charge for verification.

Recently, Musk had said that running the social media network has been "quite a rollercoaster" and acknowledged "many mistakes" along the way, six months after he bought the company for $44 billion. In a live interview with the BBC after agreeing to a last-minute invitation for the "spontaneity" of it, Musk appeared to tacitly acknowledge that one of those errors was the decision to label the broadcaster's account "government-funded media". He said he would change the designation on the BBC's Twitter handle after the broadcaster objected. "We want it as truthful and accurate as possible -- we're adjusting the label to 'publicly funded'," Musk said.

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The Kardashians' 'A Billion Dollar Dynasty' Series Returns to E!

The two-part series "The Kardashians: A Billion Dollar Dynasty," produced by NBCUniversal, will premiere on E! in the United States on May 1.

Swati Bhat

The show marks the Kardashians' return to E!, which hosted "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" for over 20 seasons. After the reality show ended in 2021, the Kardashians signed a deal with Hulu for "The Kardashians," which premiered in 2022 and was recently renewed for Season 3.

The two-part "speciality" series, produced by Optomen and distributed internationally by All3Media International, explains how the family established one of the world's most recognised brands and changed the face of social media while reaching extreme wealth.

Among those who have contributed are "The Hills" reality stars Heidi and Spencer Pratt, former People Magazine editor-in-chief Larry Hacket, and E! co-founder Larry Namer, as well as a slew of other journalists, TV executives, and the Kardashians' former manager.

The show debuted earlier this year on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and has since been sold to several markets. It has been licenced in a pan-Scandinavian contract with TV4, covering SVOD and free TV rights. Meanwhile, C More has purchased SVOD rights in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, while TV4 in Sweden and MTV in Finland have obtained free TV rights.

TV2 in Denmark, Movistar+ in Spain, RTL in the Netherlands, and DPG in Belgium have also struck co-exclusive SVOD deals. The series is now airing on Nine Network in Australia, and Discovery in New Zealand.

"The Kardashians are one of the most identifiable brands in the world," said Rachel Job, senior VP of non-scripted at All3Media International, "so we are thrilled to be able to deliver a series with such impressive global appeal to clients across three continents." Optomen's specialised documentary gives an insightful and refreshingly neutral look into the Kardashians, providing our clients with interesting new information and nostalgic amusement."

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Culture Working Group under India's G20 Presidency to organise a Global Thematic Webinar

The Culture Working Group (CWG) under India’s G20 Presidency will be organising the Global Thematic Webinar on “Leveraging Digital Technologies for the Protection and Promotion of Culture”. The webinar is the last in the series of the four organised by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, which is being facilitated by UNESCO (Paris), as a knowledge partner of CWG.

The webinar is scheduled for 20 April 2023, from 12:30 PM to 8:30 PM (IST), with the intent to foster an inclusive dialogue and initiate an in-depth discussion from an expert driven perspective on the priority area articulated by the CWG and supported by the G20 membership. The aim is to discuss the digital upskilling and capacity building of cultural practitioners and sharing of best practices to digitise cultural heritage assets for long term preservation by experts from G20 members, guest nations, and relevant international organisations.

At the global thematic webinar, experts would also discuss the impact of emerging technologies and the new opportunities they present to memory institutions for reaching wider audiences and engage them in novel and immersive ways. These include artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality and robotics among others.

Artificial intelligence, for instance, can help memory institutions analyse and categorise vast amounts of data, making it easier to organise and access digital archives. Virtual and augmented reality technologies can create immersive experiences that enable visitors to interact with historical artefacts and cultural heritage sites in a more engaging and personalised way. Robotics can be used to create replicas of artifacts and cultural objects, enabling their preservation and dissemination beyond the physical boundaries of the institution.

However, the constantly evolving nature of digital technologies also presents challenges for memory institutions, particularly in the areas of digital preservation. This challenge requires an agile, context-specific, and global framework for the digitisation and digitalisation of culture. The potential of emerging technologies to transform the way we engage with culture is immense, and memory institutions need to be proactive in leveraging these technologies to achieve their mission of preserving and disseminating cultural heritage by exploring opportunities for collaboration among the various stakeholders for digitalisation and digitisation of culture, especially with private technology firms.

The upcoming webinar will consist of three speaking segments, specifically designed to explore and discuss significant aspects of the theme - Leveraging digital technologies for the protection and promotion of culture. These segments will aim to facilitate knowledge sharing and exchange of good practices, identify gaps and priorities, and provide recommendations to the CWG.

The webinar will have three speaking segments and experts will be distributed across these segments based on their respective time zone. The webinar will be moderated by representatives from ICOM, ICOMOS, and UNITAR with expertise on the topic. It will be live streamed on the YouTube channel of UNESCO. The previous global thematic webinars on priority one, two and three were conducted on 28 March, 13 and 19 April respectively.

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