Twitter seems to be in a confused state where it is now reinstating the blue verified badge for some accounts on the microblogging platform after taking it away from users on April 20. Neither Elon, nor his company has made any announcement as to why some accounts are getting it back. So far, the criteria for getting back the verified badge seems to be the number of followers the account has.
Musk announced recently that Twitter will be removing the blue verification badge from all the accounts on the platform starting April 15. Anyone who wants the badge would have to pay $8 a month in the US or Rs 900 a month in India for the Twitter Blue subscription.
The change, that was deferred for 5 days, came into effect on April 20 when the verified badge was removed from all accounts, including the account of the President of the United States, celebrities like Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Ryan Reynolds and more.
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However, these accounts mysteriously got their blue verified badge back on Saturday, April 22, without having to pay for the Twitter Blue subscription. For some users though, such as  American author Stephen King, US professional basketball player LeBron James and legendary actor William Shatner, Musk said that he would be paying personally for their subscriptions so they get to keep the verified badge.
Not only that, but the accounts of some dead celebrities, such as US chef Anthony Bourdain, Chadwick Boseman, and more also received a blue tick. Top cricketers such as Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli who lost the blue verified badge on their Twitter handles, have also got them back.
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So far, the criteria for getting the check mark back for free, has apparently been identified as the number of followers which should be more than a million. All the accounts that got back the verified badge had one thing in common, where they had more than 1 million followers. Till now, it is looking like Twitter is still confused as to how it should take forward its Blue subscription, and especially the implementation of the Blue verified badge.