FAMOUS TWITTER USERS DISAVOW MUSK OVER VERIFICATION RETURN

Celebrities, professional athletes and other high-profile Twitter users are once again being verified by the social media platform and they don’t know why their blue check marks reappeared — nor do they seem too happy about it.

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Twitter removed the blue marks last week from accounts that don’t pay a monthly fee. But the check marks mysteriously returned for many highly followed accounts over the weekend, leading some prominent users to disavow what’s become a divisive symbol of Twitter owner Elon Musk’s erratic changes to the platform.

The account belonging to the Auschwitz Memorial, which has 1.5 million followers and regularly tweets out photos and names of Holocaust victims, tweeted on Sunday (23) that after two days of no blue check mark, its account was reverified. The Memorial said it was “obliged to clarify” that it never subscribed and paid for Twitter Blue as the icon implies.

Other high-profile accounts with more than 1 million followers also took to Twitter to make it clear they didn’t pay to get their blue check back. Those who chimed in included Massachusetts Institute of Technology, actor Bette Midler, gymnast Simone Biles Owens, writer Neil Gaiman and rapper Lil Nas X.