Andy Murray among the celebs to suddenly have Twitter blue ticks restored
Andy Murray was among a gaggle of celebrities who saw their blue ticks restored without warning or notice.
Once a free indicator of authenticity and/or fame, blue ticks now have to be bought by subscribers for $8 a month, according to Twitter.
Non-paying accounts with a blue tick lost it on Thursday, as owner Elon Musk fully implemented a strategy, dubbed “Twitter Blue”, to generate new revenue, announced last year.
My blue tick has reappeared 🤔🤔🤔
For free… some game— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) April 23, 2023
A small fraction of blue-ticked users would sign up to the subscription, with less than 5 per cent of the 407 000 profiles affected, according to Travis Brown, a Berlin-based software developer tracking social media platforms.
However, on Friday and Saturday, some notable celebrities regained their blue ticks, seemingly without action on their part, including Murray and author Stephen King, NBA champion LeBron James and former US president Donald Trump among others.
On Friday, the South African-born billionaire announced that he would personally be paying for the blue ticks of a handful of prominent users.
Many celebrities an public figures noted that their blue ticks had been restored without any prompting or query from the user.
Most who received the tick were quick to make it clear to their followers that they had not subcribed to the Premium service.
The celebrities in question had mixed feelings about the restoration with many feeling that they are being used as a promotional tool.
“No means no, boys,” tech journalist Kara Swisher tweeted on Saturday, saying that she had gained the blue tick without her consent.
“Inquiring minds need to know: Does Elon love me for me or for my 1.49 million followers?” she added, two hours after saying she would not pay “$8/month for blue check and meh features.”
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Also seeing some blue ticks restored were prominent media outlets and new agencies like the New York Times and AFP.
The changes have not lured back US public radio NPR and Canada’s public broadcaster CBC who have both scaled back posting on the platform.
Other institutions have also seen their ticks restored with The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) noting the change and responding by Tweeting: “We did not subscribe to Twitter Blue.”
Musk has restored the ticks of his critics as well handing one to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman who had mocked the billionaire for his alleged ‘lack of impulse control.’
“So my blue check has reappeared. I had nothing to do with that, and am definitely not paying.”
