California, 26 April 2023 (GNP): Most of the accounts acquired their blue ticks days after Twitter disabled them for everyone but users who paid for them.
According to TechCrunch, the blue ticks, once known as Twitter’s mark of verification before Elon Musk took over, have reportedly been restored on accounts with more than a million followers.
However, many people who received their blue ticks back said they did not pay for them. This goes against Musk’s past declaration that only accounts with subscriptions would receive blue markings.
Users are wondering what are the requirements to receive the coveted blue tick. However, the answer is still unknown to users.
The requirement for having more than a million followers also seemed unreasonable. Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, does not have the badge despite having over a million followers.
According to TechCrunch, a programmer by the name of Travis Brown examined accounts with more than a million followers and discovered that roughly 110 of them lacked the blue ticks.
The sudden return of blue ticks was not only puzzling but also, in some ways, frightening. The tick has also been returned for the accounts of deceased celebrities. A message box appears when you hover your cursor over the tick and states: “This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number”.
The Verge reported that among several departed celebrities who have got their verification status back are Michael Jackson, Chadwick Boseman, Kobe Bryant, Barbara Walters, and Anthony Bourdain. Many of these accounts have not been used in a long time.
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Twitter also granted blue ticks to fake accounts like MTV and Disney. Some reports claim that despite tweeting vulgar language and slang, the @DisneyJuniorUK account managed to receive a gold tick, which is only given to companies who request it.
For Musk, Twitter’s Blue Ticks was a means of boosting cash flow for the company he purchased last year.
Blue subscriptions on Twitter for individuals cost $8 and include a blue check. The price for businesses, according to TechCrunch, was $1,000 plus an additional $50 for connected accounts for its employees and subsidiaries.
However, evaluation reveals that Twitter’s Blue Ticks did not quite perform as Musk had hoped. In the first three months following its inception in December, the scheme only generated $11 million in revenue from mobile subscribers, said TechCrunch.
