Twitter restored blue ticks for some users with a million followers, including dead celebrities.
In what seems to be a U-Turn from the original plan of Twitter Blue, the company's paid subscription service, CEO Elon Musk has now restored the blue tick of some users. On April 20, users who had not subscribed to the service had lost the verified blue check mark but now it seems that the microblogging site's new owner Mr Musk made some exceptions for people who did not enroll for the service and restored the blue badge of users with reportedly over a million followers. However, in a bizarre occurrence, the microblogging site also restored the verification mark to the profiles of celebrities and noted personalities who are dead, creating confusion about its new paid verification feature.
Actors Sushant Singh Rajput, Rishi Kapoor, Irrfan, singer Lata Mangeshkar, American singer Michael Jackson, basketball player Kobe Bryant, cricketer Shane Warne, footballer Pele, are some of the noted personalities whose accounts appeared to be verified. "This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number," reads the text when one hovers over the blue badge of these profiles.
It is to be noted that some of the accounts of dead celebrities who regained their verification had been inactive for quite some time. However, it is unclear whether Twitter intends to reinstate the blue ticks for any or all celebrities - living or dead.
Bollywood actors like Alia Bhatt and Shah Rukh Khan, cricketers Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, former US President Donald Trump, and billionaire Bill Gates, who also lost their blue ticks because of the new update, have the blue checkmark back on their profile. However, it is also not clear whether they have paid for the verification or not.
Many users pointed out that even though they had not paid for the service, their blue badge was reinstated by the company. Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah also took to Twitter to point out the same. He said, "Apparently I've paid for Twitter Blue & given them a phone number to verify except that I haven't. Mr Musk are you paying for mine as well?"