Amid an ongoing standoff between Twitter and the Centre, the social media platform on Saturday removed the verified blue tick from the personal account of Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu. Officials of the Vice President Secretariat said the personal Twitter handle of Naidu @MVenkaiahNaidu was inactive for a long time and the Twitter algorithm removed the blue badge.
The blue tick or "verified" mark signifies that an account is "authentic, notable and active", Twitter explains.
The officials said Twitter was in the process of restoring the verification badge. The last tweet posted from the personal handle was on July 23 last year.
The vice president uses the official Twitter handle to send out tweets. A response from Twitter was awaited.
The removal of the blue ticks is likely to further escalate the standoff between Twitter and the Indian government over a host of issues, including freedom of expression and the new IT rules.
Last month, Twitter's move to mark as "manipulated media" the posts of BJP leaders on an alleged Congress toolkit drew a sharp response from the government, which sternly asked the site to undo the label, calling it "an overreach and prejudicial".
(With PTI inputs)
