Manchester City centre-back Aymeric Laporte took to social media to poke fun at Elon Musk after Twitter removed blue ticks from non-subscribing accounts.
On Thursday, the blue check marks - which were established to help avoid misinformation and impersonation - were taken off accounts which had not subscribed to 'Twitter Blue'. Mr Musk has come under intense scrutiny for the decision, with the blue check mark now only available to users who pay $8 a month to Twitter.
Like millions of other people, City ace Laporte was impacted by the chance. The Spain international had a blue tick prior to the change, and he was quick to joke about its removal.
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"Damn Elon what did u do lol," tweeted Laporte.
It didn't take fans too long to reply to Laporte, and the 28-year-old even responded to some tweets.
One account wrote: "Apparently if you change your @ to “I’mEricLaporte” he will give you the tick back."
Laporte replied, saying: "Tempting," alongside a laughing emoji.
Meanwhile, another user said: "Ur one of us now."
The City man responded: "I’ve always been," accompanied by another laughing emoji.
Twitter says it will check whether users are impersonating others, however, questions have been raised as to how that process will work. The social media platform introduced gold and silver ticks, with the former indicating official organisations, while the latter applies to government accounts.
Meanwhile, Laporte came off the bench on Wednesday night as Pep Guardiola's side progressed to the semi-finals of the Champions League with a 4-1 aggregate victory over Bayern Munich.
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