Twitter has verified the account of far-right party Britain First after the account was previously banned from the site.
It follows the removal of verified checkmarks for some accounts towards the end of Thursday, with some of the biggest accounts losing their ticks including footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, cricketer Virat Kohli and former US president Donald Trump, as well as the official Twitter page for the pope.
The party’s leader Paul Golding has also been verified by Twitter.
Accounts labelled as “official organisations” will be able to keep their verified status, according to the new rules.
Britain First, which was not previously verified, has now been marked as an “official organisation” by Twitter, which means their tweets are more likely to appear in the newsfeeds of users that do not follow the account.
The Independent’s Home Affairs Editor Lizzie Dearden said: “Twitter has verified the (previously banned) far-right party Britain First as an “official organisation” and is giving blue ticks to anyone “affiliated” with it.
“That will amplify their tweets to non-followers.”
The Twitter accounts of Britain First’s leader and deputy leader Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen were suspended in 2017, as well as the party’s account, under Twitter’s hate speech rules.
Golding was jailed in 2018 for hate crimes against Muslims, while Fransen attracted global attention when US president Donald Trump retweeted anti-Islam videos she had posted in 2017.
Britain First and its leader rejoined Twitter in October 2022 after Elon Musk took over the company. Fransen has not rejoined the platform.
Within 24 hours of rejoining the platform, the party’s account posted a video of asylum seekers at a hotel in Rotherham and a video “allegedly showing illegal #migrants jumping out of a van in northern France”.
After rejoining the platform, Golding said: “Britain First was first banned by woke bigots back in 2017 after being retweeted by President Donald Trump. We are glad to be back on the platform as a registered, full UK political party that contests democratic elections.”
Twitter Verified tweeted that legacy verified checkmarks would be removed from the site on 20 April, with the main way of getting a blue tick being to sign up for Twitter Blue, with an £8 monthly fee for UK-based users.
Some Twitter users have a grey tick next to their accounts, which highlights that it is verified because “it is a government or multilateral organisation account”.
Users on Twitter with grey ticks include Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
Some users such as Britain First will have a gold tick to indicate that “it’s an official organisation on Twitter”, though some media outlets have had this removed from its account.
BBC News, CNN, NBC News and Fox News are among the affected outlets that no longer have a gold checkmark.
Twitter owner Elon Musk said he is “personally” paying to keep blue ticks on the accounts of several notable people despite many claiming they would not pay to keep their verified checkmark.
It comes as some companies have quit the platform over concerns that Twitter has undermined their credibility.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) said it will be “pausing activities on Twitter”.
“Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue. That is why we are pausing our activities on Twitter,” it tweeted on Monday.
