Elon Musk’s Twitter restores legacy Blue ticks for select users

In what seems to be another twist in Twitter’s Blue tick saga, Elon Musk’s micro-blogging site has restored blue checks for select accounts, without them subscribing to the service.

This comes on the back of ‘legacy checkmarks’, a sign for verified accounts on Twitter, being purged by the social media site. Musk had announced that the legacy ticks would begin disappearing ‘4/20’ onwards.

Some celebrities across the globe saw their blue ticks reappearing next to their names on Twitter. Popular among them being Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, cricketers Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, comedian Vir Das, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, and even once banned former US president Donald Trump.


The Twitter Blue service launched in India on February 8, and is available for a monthly fee of Rs 650 on the web and Rs 900 on mobile devices. This works out to Rs. 7,800 per year on the web and Rs 10,800 annually on mobile devices. Twitter users, though, can avail a discount of 12% and sign up for the subscription for Rs 9,400 per year.

According to a report in The Daily Beast, a US-based news website, Musk has apparently restored the check marks for accounts with the highest follower counts. Some of the biggest names on Twitter lost their Blue ticks which opened the door for a barrage of celebrity impersonators.

Musk said in a tweet that he was personally paying for the Blue ticks of NBA star LeBron James, Canadian actor Willam Shatner and author Stephen King.


In a cryptic tweet, Musk said ‘check mate’, possibly hinting at the change in his Blue tick policy.

Earlier this month, Musk had tweeted that the legacy blue verification checks on Twitter will be removed by April 20. ‘Final date for removing legacy Blue checks is 4/20’, Musk tweeted.


Musk’s chosen date to remove legacy Blue ticks, ‘4/20’ is not the first time the Twitter CEO has shown his affinity towards the number ‘420’, a slang term used in cannabis culture for marijuana consumption.