Twitter users with over one million followers have received their verification badges back, although the criteria for reinstating them remain unclear.
On Sunday morning, public figures, government agencies, and widely used platforms discovered that their blue verification badges had been restored. This move comes after Twitter suspended traditional verification to make way for a new system, which had caused chaos on the platform.
Although users had to pay for the verification badge according to the new Twitter CEO Elon Musk's initial statement, many users Tweeted on Sunday morning that they had not paid.
Did you read this?
Twitter still needs to issue an official communication regarding restoring verification badges for users with over one million followers despite the badges being reinstated.
Twitter users woke up to unprecedented chaos on the platform on Friday, April 21, unlike anything they had experienced in recent months.
The situation was so severe that malicious individuals created parody accounts, causing confusion among users and spreading fake news.
Government accounts were immediately impersonated, labels previously used to identify Chinese and Russian propaganda were removed, and the company was forced to individually re-verify certain high-profile figures, such as Pope Francis.
Governor of Nairobi Johnson Sakaja, his predecessor Mike Sonko, attorney Ahmed Nassir, and many more have their Twitter verification reinstated.
According to reports, removing verification badges was part of Elon Musk's efforts to eliminate the "lords and peasants" system that determines who has a blue checkmark on Twitter.
According to CNN, many media organizations lost their gold verification badges, which Musk's team had created as an alternative to traditional brand verification. The loss of the badges is said to result from these organizations' apparent reluctance to pay for the badges, which now cost $1,000 (Ksh.134, 131) per month.
