Elon Musk trolls celebrities by ‘personally’ paying for their Twitter blue ticks
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Elon Musk has admitted that he is “personally” paying for Twitter blue ticks for certain stars who said they would refuse to cough up for them.
On Thursday (20 April), the platform’s verification system was overhauled, with every account that had a “legacy” blue tick being stripped of its badge. Now, the only accounts with blue checkmarks are those paying the £11 a month for the subscription.
“Legacy” blue ticks had previously been given to verified accounts belonging to celebrities, politicians, journalists and organisations.
Author Stephen King, basketball player LeBron James and actor William Shatner – three celebrities who each had rows with Musk on Twitter in recent months after saying they had no plans to subscribe to Twitter Blue – currently have the checkmark.
Popbase tweeted that Musk said he was “personally paying” the Blue subscriptions of some stars, with the billionaire replying: “Just Shatner, LeBron and King.”
When King tweeted “My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t”, Musk simply replied: “You’re welcome namaste.”
Of the 50 most-followed profiles on Twitter, only seven accounts – apart from Musk’s and Barack Obama’s, which have affiliate blue ticks linked to official organisations – are currently “verified”: those of James, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Ellen DeGeneres, Britney Spears, Jimmy Fallon, and Miley Cyrus.
Apart from in James’s case, it is not clear whether those other celebrities are paying for Twitter Blue.
There has been concern that allowing users to simply pay for verified status will lead to the spreading of fake news and an increase in impersonations online.
On Thursday, former Pointless host Richard Osman issued a warning to his followers over the scrapping of blue ticks for users who do not pay.
