India's first Twitter user says she does not need 'blue tick'
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Photo courtesy of ANI
In 2006 Naina Redhu got an email from a strange application. Curious as she was Redhu decided to explore, thus becoming India's first Twitter user.
Over the past 16 years, she has witnessed the social media network evolving from changing its code name TWTTR to Twitter to gathering millions of users in India alone.
When she joined Twitter she had no idea it would become the big platform it is now.
Redhu, who currently works in a hotel in Jaisalmer, has made some 1, 75,000 tweets till now, amassing 22,000 followers which include celebritites, according to a report in NDTV.
Redhu told ANI that back then there was no one from India on Twitter and most of the chats happening had been between Twitter employees and friends.
They would message each other back and forth and Redhu who was then working in Mumbai felt she had nothing to talk to them and would not use the platform for about one and half years.
Redhu does not describe herself the first Twitter user in her bio which she says is not an accomplishment.
She came to know about her being the first India user of Twitter after someone from USA had compiled the first 140 Twitter users which included her name.
When it comes to discussion surrounding "blue tick", Redhu, whose profile has a blue tick, says that there is no clarity about the money to be charged for the service.
If implemented in India, users will have to pay USD 8, which is about ₹ 650 monthly.
Being a private company, she believes, Twitter introduced the idea to verify the real account and she asks since she has not paid for blue tick for the past 16 years why she should pay it now.
When asked what effect the blue tick decision would have in India, she said there would not be any effect because only people who could afford it would pay for it. People who work independently like in journalism who could not afford it might be affected, she added.
After Musk's takeover of the platform, the Twitter Blue with verification was launched last week for iOS users in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.
With inputs from ANI