Elon Musk Reverifies Twitter Accounts With Over 1 Million Followers
Among the accounts that got back their legacy blue badges was that of CNN international correspondent, Larry Madowo.
Marvin Chege 
Social media giant, Twitter, on Saturday, April 22 restored its verification badges to many legacy accounts following the confusion, misinformation and chaos that emerged after the removal of legacy verified badges.
Even though the accounts showed that they had paid the Twitter subscription fee and verified their phone numbers, the blue badge was introduced to the accounts without their knowledge.
Among the accounts that got back their legacy blue badges was that of CNN international correspondent, Larry Madowo.
“I woke up to a blue checkmark again. I haven’t paid for Twitter Blue.
"Reports say Elon Musk has given it back to “legacy verified” accounts with over 1 million followers. What’s going on?” Madowo wrote.
Popular lawyer, Ahmednassir Abdullahi on his part claimed that "Looks like Elon Musk paid for my Twitter subscription and restored the blue tick."
“Twitter started giving anyone with a large following, roughly 1 million followers or more, a free checkmark,” Forbes also revealed regarding the changes.
Leading media houses including Citizen TV, BBC and The Washington Post also had their badges restored as well as prominent leaders, journalists and media personalities such as Jeff Koinange. The media houses spent the better part of Friday, April 21 and Saturday, April 22 fighting parody accounts spreading misinformation.
Despite the welcoming change of heart to many organisations, there were concerns as Twitter accounts for celebrities and leaders who passed on were given the blue tick, indicating that they had paid for it and verified their accounts.
“Musk has given checkmarks to people who’ve passed on. And when you click on the blue checkmark on their profiles it not only says they’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue, it says they’ve handed over their phone number,” Forbes noted.
Some notable personalities who had their accounts verified despite having passed on included basketballer Kobe Bryant and actor Anthony Bourdain.
Elon Musk was yet to issue a statement regarding whether the blue ticks would continue to be free for accounts with over 1 million followers.
Madowo on Saturday, April 22 expressed that even though he would decide to pay to get his verification badge, it would be hard for users to distinguish between the real Madowo and 30 other parody accounts he revealed were set up to compete against him on the platform.
This was because the parody users would also take the same direction and pay to get the coveted blue badge, intensifying the purported competition and increasing the level of confusion among users who rely on Twitter for news updates.
An image of gold checkmarks on Twitter accounts. /TWITTER
