Twitter U-turns

Celebrities have been confused by Twitter's most recent U-turn, which returns their blue ticks.

Elon Musk abolished the initial authentication method to maintain their blue ticks and made customers pay a monthly fee. The checkmarks have mysteriously returned even on accounts that weren't previously present.

After disappearing for a few days, Twitter's infamous blue ticks have returned on prominent and celebrity accounts.

Even though they acknowledged buying their clicks, tennis player Sir Andy Murray,  former footballer Gary Neville, comedian Ricky Gervais, and actor Sir Ian McKellen are just a few who have had their clicks restored.

Tens of thousands of accounts had their "legacy" verification marks removed by Twitter after its owner Elon Musk established a policy after acquiring the company for $44 billion (£38 billion) last October.

To maintain their blue checkmarks, he said users must subscribe to Twitter Blue (which may cost up to £11 per month), yet many have reappeared.

Even if it would seem otherwise when you click the suddenly reappearing blue badge next to my name, Sir Ian tweeted that he was not paying for the "honor."

While Gervais cracked a joke about Neville's blue tick returning as "a gift for all the bath photographs over the years," Neville denied rumors that he paid a fee, saying that "it did just resurface."

The accounts of the Pope, J.K. Rowling, Cristiano Ronaldo, Jay-Z, the Conservative and Labour parties, and the Pope were among those affected by the Thursday cull.

While some well-known people appeared to have paid for the members themselves, Musk admitted that he was paying for some of them to remain verified.

According to reports, accounts with a million followers have their ticks back.

The apparent about-face comes in response to an outcry that saw the hashtag #BlockTheBlueChecks trend on Twitter, and some famous people completely delete their online presence, like Bella Ramsey from The Last of Us.

Dara O Briain, a comedian with 2.6 million followers but only recently verified, also received the coveted badge.

"I come up this morning to find I have been issued a blue tick, despite never genuinely having one," O Briain posted on Twitter (I liked the idea that I might have been a parody account all this time).

"That is strange. No, I have neither paid nor asked for it. Can I now enter nightclubs?

Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirror, who has 1.2 million followers, seemed offended by his verification by ostensibly figuring out how to get rid of the tick.

He wrote: "Hi, I'm Barry Scott in a parody tweet that mimicked a well-known UK cleaning advertisement. Blue Tick made a comeback?

Change your name, then reverse the change. BANG! The mark has vanished.

The most recent U-turn comes after Musk's initial introduction of for-pay blue checkmarks last year, which caused Twitter to become inundated with accounts pretending to be celebrities, brands, and politicians.