Twitter reinstates blue ticks for accounts with at least 1 million followers?

Former J&K CM Omar Abdullah, who has 3.2 million followers, is among those who had their ‘verified’ status reinstated, despite not paying for the blue tick.

Twitter has restored blue ticks for several accounts, doing so just days after removing these for users who did not pay to keep their ‘verified’ status despite a ‘deadline’ given by owner Elon Musk to subscribe to Twitter Blue, the microblogging platform's $8 a month paid subscription service, which adds the blue verification checkmarks to accounts.

On April 20, Twitter removed blue ticks for those who had not paid for their verified status.

For instance, on Sunday, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted to say the blue tick had been reinstated for his handle, despite not paying for Twitter Blue.

Journalist Rana Ayyub, too, said her verified status was back, and she had not subscribed to Twitter Blue.

US authors Kara Swisher and Stephen King were among those who had their blue checkmarks restored – without paying.

It must be noted, however, that each of Abdullah (3.2 million followers), Ayyub (1.5 million), Swisher (1.4 million) and King (7.1 million) is followed by least 1 million people on the website, an indication that among users who did not subscribe to Twitter Blue, the blue tick had been restored only for those with minimum 1 million followers.

Meanwhile, there was no word from Musk or Twitter on reinstatement of blue checkmarks for non-subscribers.

Elon Musk's ‘deadline’

Tesla CEO Musk, the world's second-wealthiest person who purchased Twitter in October last year when he was the richest in the world, announced on April 12 that on April 20, the social network will take away the verification badges from people who do not subscribe to Twitter Blue. As warned, the badges were removed at the end of the ‘deadline.’

Prior to the billionaire's takeover, getting verified on Twitter was free-of-cost.