Twitter has verified some of its more high-profile accounts for free.
Beyonce, Victoria Beckham and Harry Kane are some of the many users who have had their blue tick resorted since April 20th, the day that CEO Elon Musk removed the mark of authentication from accounts not subscribed to Twitter Blue, the premium tier of the microblogging service that costs roughly $8 a month.
Before the 51-year-old entrepreneur acquired the site for $44 billion last year, the blue tick featured on accounts of both individuals and organisations that were notable for combating impersonation and misinformation.
Users like the author Stephen King, the ex ‘Star Trek’ star William Shatner and the NBA star LeBron James - who have all criticised the paid-for scheme - have also had their blue tick handed back to them, and Elon has claimed he personally pays for them.
It is believed that those with more than one million followers have been handed back the blue tick. However, it has not been uniform in its returning scheme as ‘Deadpool’ star and Wrexham AFC co-owner Ryan Reynolds - who has 21 million followers - has not been given another blue tick.
According to BBC News, the process is believed to be manually done, and the endeavour will be continued over the coming days.
Twitter has not provided the official numbers of those signed up to Twitter Blue, but Techcrunch reported there were roughly 386,000 web page-based users last month out of a total of 300 million total accounts.
