Blue tick don return to some Twitter account without payment

Twitter don return blue tick badges to some Twitter accounts wey get more than one million followers without paying to subscribe.

Beyoncé, Harry Kane, Richard Osman and Victoria Beckham dey among those pipo wey don get dia blue tick back.

Di BBC News Twitter account don also get im gold badge again, but dem no pay am.

Bifor Elon Musk buy di platform, di blue tick na one badge of verification wey Twitter dey give for free.

Dem bin originally dey use am as a tool of authentication, wey dem design to help stop fake accounts and di spread of misinformation.

Now na symbol say one account don subscribe to a premium service dem call Twitter Blue - and e get verification process wey dey attached wit making di payment. E get different prices depending on wia dem make di subscription but na around $8 per month.

Those wey get blue tick from di original verification process, wey decide not to pay di subscription fee, begin lose dia ticks on 20 April.

Di broadcaster James O'Brien, wey get 1.1m followers, na one of those wey don get dia blue tick back afta e lose am. E confam say im neva pay for im account.

Im also note say some accounts wit fewer than 1m followers also appear to get dia blue ticks restored, "annointed entirely at Elon Musk discretion".

Eliot Higgins, wey found di investigations organisation Bellingcat, confam to BBC on Friday say dem give am im blue tick, and Bellingcat verification for free.

Oga Musk don claim say im pay for di subscriptions imself on behalf of di author Stephen King, di actor William Shatner and di basketball player Lebron James wey don criticise di scheme.

At di time of writing, some celebrities like actor Ryan Reynolds wey also own Wrexham football club, still neva get im blue tick back even as im get over 21m followers.

Report be say dem do di removal of di legacy blue ticks manually so e dey possible say dis na also manual process wey go kontinu over di coming days.

Twitter Blue don get troubled launch. Dem bin initially delay am afta fake accounts begin come up wey pretend to be official organisation, and in recent weeks both subscribers and formerly verified accounts don look di same.

Subscribers' tweets get higher visibility, individual posts fit dey longer, and dem go see fewer ads.

Elon Musk don previously tok say di finances of di company get k-leg wen im take over and say Twitter dey operate at a loss of $4m per day.

Twitter neva reveal how many pipo don chose to subscribe so far but di app firm Sensor Tower estimate am to TechCrunch say di platform get around 386,000 subscribers for March 2023.

Dis one no include subscriptions dem make on Twitter website rather dan within im app but na still small fraction of di company roughly 300 million user-base.

How celebrities for Africa react to blue tick loss

Celebrities for Africa and all over di world don react to how Twitter remove dia blue ticks.

One former Deputy Governor of di Central Bank of Nigeria, Kingsley Moghalu, wey im blue tick vanish, say im no go pay Twitter any money to get am back.

“Goodbye to my Twitter blue tick. Life goes on. No, I no go pay $8 per month. No be di same tin as getting am as recognition,” Moghalu tweet on 20 April.

Nigerian renowned entrepreneur and Founder of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu, say im wake up to see say verification don disappear. But im not tok weda im go dey pay money to retain im verification.

Nollywood actress Kate Henshaw also say she no go pay a dime for di blue tick.

Any user fit subscribe for di verification badge either monthly or yearly, and dem dey price am differently for every region and based on how user sign up for am.

Nigerians wey dey use web to sign up for Twitter Blue fit get am for N3,650 per month or N38,500 yearly. While iOS users fit get di verification badge for N5,000 monthly or N52,900 per year. E dey currently unavailable for users for Nigeria wey wan sign up wit Android.

For di United States, di verification badge dey priced at $11 per month or $114.99 per year for iOS or Android users. Na $8 monthly or $84 yearly for web users.

Critics believe say to pay to dey verified on Twitter go make di platform dey dangerous to use as impersonators fit leverage on dis feature.