Nairobi News

After a few days of chaos and confusion in Twitter’s blue tick saga, Elon Musk’s micro-blogging site has restored the blue tick to select accounts that do not subscribe to the service.

This comes after ‘legacy checkmarks’, a marker for verified accounts on Twitter, were purged by the social media site.

Musk had announced that legacy checkmarks would start disappearing on ‘4/20’.

When the Elon Musk-owned platform began removing the blue verification checkmarks from accounts that don’t pay a monthly fee this week, it left governments and other organisations around the world scrambling to find a way to show they’re trustworthy and avoid impersonators.

Also read: Why your Twitter logo looks different

On Sunday morning, some celebrities, media houses and organisations around the world saw their blue ticks reappear next to their names and handles on Twitter.

According to a report in The Daily Beast, a US-based news website, Musk appeared to have restored the ticks to accounts with the highest follower counts.

Some of the biggest names on Twitter lost their blue ticks, opening the door to a flood of impersonators and parody accounts.

Musk removed the Blue verification mark after they failed to pay a monthly subscription fee of Sh972 ($8) for Twitter Blue.

Several Twitter users had objected to the changes, fearing the new requirements would encourage the spread of misinformation and fake news.

While Twitter now offers gold checks for “verified organisations” and grey checks for government organisations and their affiliates, it was not always clear why some accounts had them on Friday and others did not.

Also read: Here’s why blue-tick Twitter verification is important

Didn't pay for the check but got it back. But the claim is that I subscribed. pic.twitter.com/xIe8UIxc09

— John-Allan Namu (@johnallannamu) April 23, 2023

Several users tweeted on Sunday morning that they had not made any payments.

“I woke up to a blue tick again. I didn’t pay for Twitter Blue. Reports say Elon Musk has given it back to ‘legacy verified’ accounts with over 1 million followers. What’s going on?” CNN journalist Larry Madowo tweeted.

Other public figures who had their Twitter verification restored included Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja, his predecessor Mike Sonko, lawyer Ahmed Nassir and many others.

“Looks like Elon Musk paid for my Twitter subscription and restored the blue checkmark,” tweeted lawyer Ahmed Nassir.

At the end of the chaos, another curious thing about the whole scenario is that even dormant celebrity accounts, of those who have died, also show that they have subscribed to Twitter Blue, as their blue tick is also restored.

Some of these accounts include the late actor Chadwick Boseman, Michael Jackson, Kirstie Alley, John McAfee, Norm Macdonald and Kobe Bryant.

Also read: Dennis Itumbi supports removal of blue verified badge of non-paying Twitter users