Some Twitter accounts with more than one million followers have had their blue tick badges re-instated by Twitter without paying to subscribe.
Beyoncé, Harry Kane, Richard Osman, Victoria Beckham, Gary Neville, Andy Murray, Ian McKellen and Ricky Gervais are among those to have their blue tick back.
Before the platform was bought by Elon Musk, the blue tick was a badge of verification given for free by Twitter.
It was originally used as a tool of authentication, designed to help stop fake accounts and the spread of misinformation.
Now it is a symbol that an account has subscribed to a premium service called Twitter Blue – and there is a verification process attached with making the payment. There are various prices depending on where the subscription is made but it is around $8 per month.
Those with a blue tick from the original verification process, who decided not to pay the subscription fee, began losing their ticks on 20 April.
The broadcaster James O’Brien, who has 1.1m followers, is one of those who has now got his blue tick back after losing it. He confirmed that he had not paid for his account.
He also noted that some accounts with fewer than 1m followers also appeared to have had their blue ticks restored, “anointed entirely at Elon Musk’s discretion”.
Musk has claimed that he paid for the subscriptions himself on behalf of the author Stephen King, actor William Shatner and the basketball player Lebron James who had all criticised the scheme.
It was reported that the removal of the legacy blue ticks had to be done manually so it is possible that this is also a manual process.
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