Nearly three days after millions of Twitter users lost the blue checks that helped verify their identity and distinguish them from impostors on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform, some users on Sunday claimed their "blue tick" restored "mysteriously'. Some of the users in India speculated that the microblogging site has restored "verified" for those who have a follower base of over a million.
"So my blue check has reappeared. I had nothing to do with that, and am definitely not paying," Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman posted on Twitter.
Replying to the post, Musk responded with an annoying picture.
Meanwhile, in India, several eminent journalists also reported the same. "My blue tick has also mysteriously returned although I haven’t paid! New policy?" asked Vikram Chandra. "My blue tick is back for some reason. I haven’t paid for it. What’s up @Twitter?" wrote another journo, Nidhi Razdan.
Twitter had removed blue tick of millions
After several false starts, Twitter began making good on its promise Thursday to remove the blue checks from accounts that don’t pay a monthly fee to keep them. Twitter had about 300,000 verified users under the original blue-check system — many of them journalists, athletes and public figures. The checks — which used to mean the account was verified by Twitter to be who it says it is — began disappearing from these users’ profiles late morning Pacific Time.
High-profile users who lost their blue checks Thursday included Beyoncé, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey and former President Donald Trump.
Twitter Blue
The costs of keeping the marks range from $8 a month for individual web users to a starting price of $1,000 monthly to verify an organization, plus $50 monthly for each affiliate or employee account. Twitter does not verify the individual accounts, as was the case with the previous blue check doled out during the platform’s pre-Musk administration.
After several false starts, Twitter began making good on its promise Thursday to remove the blue checks from accounts that don’t pay a monthly fee to keep them. Twitter had about 300,000 verified users under the original blue-check system — many of them journalists, athletes and public figures. The checks — which used to mean the account was verified by Twitter to be who it says it is — began disappearing from these users’ profiles late morning Pacific Time.
High-profile users who lost their blue checks Thursday included Beyoncé, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey and former President Donald Trump.
The costs of keeping the marks range from $8 a month for individual web users to a starting price of $1,000 monthly to verify an organization, plus $50 monthly for each affiliate or employee account. Twitter does not verify the individual accounts, as was the case with the previous blue check doled out during the platform’s pre-Musk administration.
No option left
Earlier, Musk had set the deadline as March 31 for the legacy account holders to get the subscription. But, without detailing further, the microblogging site extended the date.
Twitter Blue is priced differently for every region and based on how you sign up. In the US, it costs USD 11 a month or USD 114.99 a year for iOS or Android users and USD 8 a month or USD 84 a year for web users.
Chaotic takeover
It is worth mentioning ever since the SpaceX CEO took over the platform following dramatic circumstances at the San Francisco-based headquarter, he has been making major changes in Twitter policies. Within hours of his taking charge, he fired the Indian-American CEO Parag Agrawal and later kick out other top employees from the organisation.
Later, he announced the paid subscription model, wherein the verified accounts have to pay for the "blue checkmark" which is often called the "blue tick".
This created a major setback for both the platform and Musk, as several companies lost billions of dollars due to their accounts. This resulted in Musk temporarily suspending his idea but later came up with a new plan wherein he categorised the verified accounts as per the genre.
