Update 05/01/23: The bug was fixed by Twitter shortly after this article was published. See update at the end of the article.

A silly Twitter bug allowed previously verified accounts to add their old “Blue Check” to their profile for free.

On April 20, Twitter finally removed old verified checkmarks from accounts around the world that were used to demonstrate the authenticity of accounts belonging to businesses, celebrities, politicians, activists and journalists.

Twitter Blue had previously replaced this system, allowing anyone to purchase a verified tick for their Twitter account for $8 per month.

Bug brings back legacy checkmarks

Today, Twitter users discovered they could add the words “old blue tick” to their Twitter bio, and a bug would bring back the verified legacy tick on their profile.

BleepingComputer briefly tested this bug on our profile, which lost its blue tick on April 20, and can confirm that it brings back the original blue “Account verified” tick.

Unlike the previous checkmark that has been in place since the launch of Twitter Blue, this one contains the original text used before Musk started promoting Twitter Blue.

“This account is verified because it is notable in the government, news, entertainment, or other designated category,” reads the verified legacy checkmark.

As Musk rushed to post new features on Twitter, bugs were invariably added to the platform and undetected due to lack of extended testing.

Although this bug will likely be fixed shortly, if the blue tick is important to you, you can recover it using this bug.

Update 01/05/23: After this story was published, BleepingComputer was informed that this bug may have only caused verification to appear for the profile owner themselves.

Also, it looks like the bug is fixed, or we’ve already seen some unusual behavior. On further testing, adding the string to your biography and refreshing causes the verification to disappear.