Madowo, Grand Mullah get Twitter Blue as platform verifies handles with 1M followers

Social media giant, Twitter has effected changes following the confusion, misinformation and chaos that ensued after the removal of legacy verified badges.

In the changes effected on the night of Saturday, April 22, several legacy accounts had their Twitter verification badges restored despite not paying for the Twitter blue subscription.

Among the Accounts that had their badges restored is CNN journalist, Larry Madowo’s.

Reacting to the development, Madowo wondered what could be going on after he woke up to the blue checkmark despite not paying for subscription.

“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 also had his account verified without paying the subscription fee and took to social media writing:

Looks like @elonmusk paid for my Twitter subscription and restored the blue tick @WehliyeMohamed

An analysis of the changes effected on Saturday night indicates that accounts with more than 1 million followers had their verification badges restored by the Elon Musk-owned company.

READ: Nightmare for Kenyan media after Twitter removed their verification badges

Despite the accounts showing that they had paid the subscription for Twitter blue and verified their numbers, several accounts that had their badges restored maintained that it was done without their knowledge.

“Twitter started giving anyone with a large following, roughly 1 million followers or more, a free checkmark,” Forbes wrote on the changes.

Leading media houses, Citizen TV, BBC and The Washington Post are among those that had their badges restored.

Apart from Madowo, prominent leaders, journalists and media personalities including President William Ruto, Azimio Leader Raila Odinga, and veteran journalist Jeff Koinange also had their verification badges restored.

As Twitter removed the blue verification badges for legacy accounts, media houses and celebrities in Kenya found themselves grappling with a surge in impersonation on the popular social media platform.

Several media houses and celebrities spent part of Friday, April 21 and Saturday, April 22 flagging fake news and parody accounts that mushroomed.