‘I need a million followers’: Dan Walker vents about not having a Twitter blue tick after his rival is reinstated

Dan Walker has taken to social media to moan about not having his blue tick reinstated on Twitter, after rival Piers Morgan managed to swipe his back.

The Vanished presenter, 46, who lives in Sheffield, took to Twitter to vent about not benefitting from the u-turn made by Elon Musk.

Over the weekend billionaire Elon issued free blue ticks to almost every celebrity user with more than 1 million followers.

Dan currently has just 801,400 Twitter followers whilst his TV presenter rival, Piers Morgan, has over 8.4million followers.

“Apparently I need a million followers to get the blue tick back. Have a lovely Sunday my friends. I’m off for some toast and peanut butter,” Dan vented.

Elon Musk removed "legacy" blue ticks from users on 20 April 2023 as a way to try and get users to upgrade their accounts to ‘Twitter Blue’ for the price of $8 a month. The marks were originally launched to ensure accounts belonged to the people they claimed to be, but the CEO hoped that the new subscription fee to ‘Twitter Blue’ would help solve Twitter’s financial issues.

However his plans backfired and over the weekend Twitter updated its verification policy, restoring the “blue tick” free of charge to celebrity users of the social network with over a million followers.

Elon found that instead of encouraging verified celebrities to splash out on the subscription fee, the overwhelming majority simply continued using the site. As a result, the blue tick became a status symbol of ‘privilege’ and riled other users which was not what Elon had in mind.

Director, Jim Sheridon tweeted: “It’s extraordinary, Elon took a trusted symbol of authenticity or achievement and turned into a BADGE OF SHAME.”

Team this with the fact that the billionaire revealed that Stephen King, LeBron James and William Shatner were the chosen three who would not need to pay the subscription fee a social media meltdown ensued.

Many celebrities and high profile Twitter users have been delighted to see their blue ticks reappear as if by magic.

Football pundit Gary Neville said: "They gave me my blue tick back! I won the power struggle!!"

Bestselling author and presenter, Richard Osmon said: "So my blue tick is back. Rest assured I didn’t pay for it.”

Some however were not so lucky as they had already parted ways with their hard earned cash and signed up to ‘Twitter Blue’. Match of the Day host Gary Lineker admitted he was part of the "uncool gang" who paid to subscribe.

Controversial presenter, Piers Morgan, who had already been pondering whether or not to fork out the $8 tweeted in support of Elon Musk.

He wrote: “The vitriol levelled at @elonmusk and @Twitter from high-profile people who use/exploit this platform every day for personal gain is so comically hypocritical. If you hate him/it that much, show some actual principle and quit. (Spoiler alert: they won’t…).”

The divide over the blue badge is continuing as some celebrities are trying to get rid of their blue tick by changing their name and then changing it back. Others are fiercely denying that they paid the subscription fee and are desperate to let their followers know:

LBC host James O’Brien tweeted: “Why have I got my blue tick back? People might think I paid for it! For the record, I categorically did not”.