Bella Ramsey quits Twitter with heartwarming message to their ‘gay army’
Bella Ramsey has quit Twitter, posting a loving farewell to fans and ‘gay army’. (Getty)
The Last of Us star and queer icon Bella Ramsey has reportedly quit Twitter with an adorable message of love and thanks to their fans.
Ramsey, best known for their starring role as Ellie in HBO’s post-apocalyptic fungal thriller The Last of Us and scene-stealing turn as Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones, tweeted on Friday (21 April) that they were leaving the social media platform.
They posted: “Twitter it’s been fun. My account will still be active for now but I will not be on here!”
Ramsey then went on to thank their fans, writing: “Thank you my gay army and all the rest. Love you.”
Ramsey’s move to abandon the platform comes after Twitter CEO and multi-billionaire Elon Musk finally made good on his promise to remove legacy blue ticks from users who don’t currently pay $8 per month for a Twitter Blue subscription.
It also follows Twitter quietly dropping a longstanding part of its hateful content policy that protected transgender people from targeted deadnaming and misgendering.
It is unclear whether Ramsey’s decision was influenced by the removal of legacy check marks or the platform becoming progressively less safe for LGBTQ+ – particularly trans and non-binary – users under Musk’s tenure.
On Thursday (20 April), legacy verified accounts of celebrities, politicians, journalists and other public figures were stripped of the blue ticks afforded them under the platform’s previous ownership for being “active, notable and authentic”.
Megastars including Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Justin Bieber currently do not possess the blue tick that previously identified their accounts as genuine. At the time of writing, they have not paid to subscribe to Twitter Blue.
The move has been widely criticised for easing the spread of misinformation and allowing public figures to be more convincingly impersonated – something that RuPaul’s Drag Race season 14 alumni Bosco highlighted in a hilarious way by posing as Miss Rupaul herself.
Bestselling horror writer Stephen King, Star Trek actor William Shatner and basketball star LeBron James have retained their blue ticks without a subscription, as Elon Musk confirmed that he is paying for a few notable accounts to keep their verified status.
It has been suggested that the number of subscriptions to Twitter Blue haven’t exactly soared since legacy check marks were removed.
A viral tweet on Friday (21 April) showing a screenshot of a conversation allegedly with a current Twitter employee cites “around 400” purchases of Twitter Blue “in the last 24 hours”.
Although this information is currently unverified, as of 6 February, The Information reported that just 290,000 people had signed up to Twitter Blue – or a tiny 0.07 per cent of active users.
Across the platform, users who were previously verified have embraced their blue tick-less status, with many vowing never to pay for Twitter Blue.
With LGBTQ+ icon Bella Ramsey quitting Twitter, it remains to be seen whether other celebrities and public figures plan to follow suit.
PinkNews has reached out to Twitter for comment.
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