This sparked speculation as to whether they would pay for the verification service, which had become a paid subscription of $8 per month.
Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, implemented a strategy to generate new revenue, dubbed "Twitter Blue", and as a result, only a tiny fraction of blue-ticked users subscribed.
However, on Friday and Saturday, a number of celebrities regained their blue ticks, seemingly without action on their part, including Stephen King, LeBron James and Donald Trump. Musk even tweeted that he was "paying for a few (subscriptions) personally".
The accounts of some dead celebrities also received a blue tick, and many official media accounts regained a tick, including AFP. The New York Times got back its gold badge this month after Musk had bashed the news organization as "propaganda".
Many who unwillingly gained blue ticks made it clear that they had not subscribed, including tech journalist Kara Swisher and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. MIT also tweeted that they had not subscribed to Twitter Blue.
