Naina Redhu, 'first Indian' on Twitter, refuses to pay for blue tick

Naina Redhu, who claims to be among the first Twitter users in India, joined the platform in 2006 when it was launched has made a bold statement on the blue tick controversy. Redhu joined Twitter when the company was named TWTTR (code name of the Twitter project) in 2006. Her handle has 1,75,000 tweets and 22,000 followers.

"I don't feel there will be any effect because having a blue tick in general is not a necessity. Further, people who need it and can afford will simply buy it and the public will also not be affected. But I do feel people who work independently like in journalism and cannot afford, might be affected."When asked whether she will pay for the service, Naina said, there is no clarity regarding what the fees will be for India and whether the meaning of the blue tick will remain the same or will it change. "It's a private company and the reason they started giving the blue tick to users was to verify that it's the real account of a public figure. And if I have not paid for this in the past 16 years then why should I now," she added.

Further, she talked about what she feels regarding the freedom of expression through Twitter, "I feel the freedom of expression in a country is not related to Twitter. Though it has become a platform now where we see news and check what is happening around the world but there is also a lot of fake news around. I think relying on Twitter is not the right way, we should do our own research. The problem is that since we all are busy and can't do the research across platforms hence we do depend on Twitter."