Twitter Blue Badge Controversy: Accounts Regain Verification Without Explanation

In recent hours, numerous Twitter accounts of personalities, companies and the media have recovered the blue check mark that they had lost this week after Elon Musk’s decision to limit that mark to subscribers to the Twitter Blue payment service.

Although the social network has not made any announcement in this regard, this Sunday many accounts with a large following – apparently those with more than a million followers – once again sported the blue badge, which until recently distinguished notable users whose identity had been verified. .

When clicking on the brand, the message that appears is the same as in the case of users who have chosen to pay the 8 dollars a month that the service costs and indicates that the account in question is subscribed to Twitter Blue and has provided a phone number.

Several personalities from different fields have published messages in this regard, making it clear that they had neither paid for Twitter Blue nor given their phone number and that, after losing the blue mark, it had reappeared without further explanation.

“Despite the implication when clicking on the blue badge that has mysteriously reappeared next to my name, I am not paying for the ‘honor’,” actor Ian McKellen tweeted.

“My blue mark has reappeared. I have nothing to do with it and I am definitely not paying,” said Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winner in Economics, to whom Musk himself responded with a photomontage of a crying little boy and a verified badge.

This Sunday, the blue badge seemed to have returned to many users with more than a million followers who had lost it, including the inactive accounts of several deceased celebrities, such as basketball player Koby Bryant or chef and presenter Anthony Bourdain.

Media accounts such as the Fox News chain or the Reuters, AP, AFP or EFE agencies, which had run out of the blue badge, had it again this Sunday.

Meanwhile, CNN, MSNBC or The New York Times – some of the largest media outlets often classified as progressive in the United States and which have been the target of Musk’s criticism – wore the gold mark that identifies companies that have paid for their verification on Twitter. , a service that costs $1,000 a month, despite the fact that they had anticipated that they were not going to do it.

The sudden changes applied by the social network come after a tiny percentage of users who had previously been verified opted to subscribe to Twitter Blue to keep the blue mark.

This quickly left the badge a mere identifier of who pays for Twitter and led many users to promote the blocking of accounts with the brand, in many cases admirers of Musk who defended his measures tooth and nail.

The owner of the social network, who often uses his account to joke around, already said on Thursday that he had begun personally paying subscriptions to Twitter Blue to three celebrities: actor William Shatner, basketball player LeBron James and author Stephen King. .

Both James and King had previously announced that they would not pay for Twitter’s subscription service, which in addition to the blue mark offers other advantages such as being able to edit your tweets, posting content of up to 10,000 characters, and having the platform’s algorithm push your messages. .