“My friends, I’m just going to walk quietly away from Twitter for now. I am not happy with what’s happened at Twitter & I’m not happy to be in a place that’s so angry and divisive.
“But I’ll still be alive on Instagram,” he promised, before admitting, “And I miss my blue tick!”
Neill’s fans were crushed, with several of his followers wishing him well and telling him they would miss his regular updates on the platform.
“Much love to you, Sam, you’ve always been one of the best people here and so good to us fans,” one wrote.
“The clown running the show won’t last long here and hopefully everything will be well again.”
Another commented, “This is a sad piece of news for those of us hanging in until the bitter end.”
“Don’t blame you, but will miss you. Take care, good friend,” read another fan’s message.
Neill used his Twitter account, which one follower called “a bright light on the dark platform”, to share updates on his life and work - most recently promoting his book Did I Ever Tell You This? A Memoir - throwbacks to his iconic acting career and talk about his Central Otago family wine business Two Paddocks.
In an April 21 tweet, he asked, “Did [Elon] Musk take my blue tick away?”
Neill’s not the first celebrity Twitter user to be left confused over the platform’s blue check marks, which serve to verify account holders.
In April this year, Twitter followed through on Musk’s threat to remove the blue checks from users who refused to pay a monthly fee.
Under the original blue-check system, Twitter had roughly 400,000 verified users, including Hollywood actors and star athletes as well as journalists, human rights activists and public agencies. In the past, the checks meant that Twitter had verified users were who they said they were as a method to prevent impersonation and the spread of misinformation.
But now, anyone can buy a Twitter Blue subscription starting at $8 a month. It no longer means the user is verified - other than confirming a phone number - but promises a number of features, including the ability to have more people see their tweets.
- Additional reporting, AP
