What does a blue tick mean on Twitter?

Elon Musk has made everyone's blue ticks go away and the internet is up in arms.

Overnight the likes of Beyonce, the Pope and even this reporter's blue ticks vanished, in an ego-bruising move from Twitter's new boss.

But you can get your tick back if you are... ticked off.

What is going on? Here's everything you need to know.

Beginning in 2019, originally a blue tick could be gained if an account was deemed authentic, notable and active by the service.

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This could be within a range of categories including news organisations, individuals in news and journalists, companies, brands and organisations, entertainment, sports and gaming, activists and organisers or content creators and influential individuals.

Then Musk took over in October 2022 and all changed, with the tech mogul saying people would have to pay for the privilege of the coloured pixels. Asking users to pay for verification was part of Musk’s new plan to make Twitter profitable and less financially dependent on advertising revenue.

A monthly subscription of £11/month in the UK to Twitter blue means people can get the blue check mark back. These account holders will get a number of extra features, including enhanced visibility for their tweets, the opportunity to upload and tweet videos up to 60 minutes long and set a timer to undo tweets.

After he unveiled the policy he gave people a warning that all "legacy" blue tick accounts would have their blue ticks removed by the 4h April.

There are other coloured ticks now, too.

The gold tick indicates the holder is an official business account through Twitter Verified Organisations.

And the grey tick means the holder represents a government or multilateral organisation or an official of either.

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