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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Twitter’s blue ticks were reinstated on some politicians, media, celebrity, and other high-profile accounts at the weekend.
Once a free sign of authenticity and fame, blue ticks must now be bought by subscribers for $8 a month, Twitter says.
Non-paying accounts that had a blue tick lost it on Thursday, as Twitter owner, Elon Musk implemented a strategy, dubbed: “Twitter Blue,” in order to generate revenue.
Only a tiny fraction of blue-ticked users subscribed – less than five per cent of the 407,000 profiles affected, according to Travis Brown, a Berlin-based software developer who tracks social media platforms.
But over the weekend, a number of politicians, celebrities and high profile accounts regained their blue ticks, seemingly without any action on their part.
Checks by Newspeakoline showed that the blue ticks of Nigeria’s President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as well as his opponents in the February 25 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, have been reinstated.
Also, Nigerian singers- Olamide, Davido and Wizkid- who were all affected when Twitter removed the verification badge, have their blue ticks restored.
On the global stage, author Stephen Kin; NBA star, LeBron James; football star, Cristiano Ronaldo; and former US president, Donald Trump, were among high profile accounts that have their blue ticks reinstated.
Newspeakonline gathered that people with a minimum of one million followers on the microblogging site have their blue ticks reinstated automatically.
Twitter owner, Elon Musk, had on Friday tweeted that he was “paying for a few (subscriptions) personally.”
American rapper Lil Nas X, whose profile displays the blue tick, tweeted: “On my soul i didn’t pay for Twitter blue, u will feel my wrath tesla man!”