News/Commentary

Elon Musk reveals he’s personally paying for three celebs to keep blue checks as meltdown begins

April 21, 2023 | | Print Article

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has officially stripped most well-known names of the coveted blue checkmark if they refuse to pay $8 a month for the privilege, although evidently, he did personally pony up for several notable names: Stephen King, William Shatner, LeBron James and perhaps Ice-T.

It’s unknown why he is covering those accounts and whether he’s doing it because he respects them or is merely trolling them. Probably the latter.

As leftists, celebrities, and the famous carped over losing the checkmark and having to pay a measly $8 a month to verify their identity, Elon Musk is laughing all the way to the bank and Twitter solvency.

On Thursday, the tech mogul made good on his promise and stripped accounts of the blue checkmarks. Twitter reportedly had approximately 300,000 verified users under its original system according to TIME. Many of those were journalists, celebrities, athletes, and high-profile public figures.

Figures such as Beyoncé, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey, and former President Trump all lost their blue checks. But several famous names did not. Musk seemingly confirmed to Pop Base that he is “personally paying” the Twitter blue subscriptions of author Stephen King, actor William Shatner, and basketball star LeBron James. Rapper Ice-T still has his checkmark as of this writing but Musk did not mention him in a tweet acknowledging his actions. All of them had previously balked at paying the monthly fee and had personally gotten into it with Musk over it.

King noted on Twitter that he hadn’t paid or given his phone number.

“My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t,” King tweeted on Thursday. “Just so you know.”

Musk replied, “You’re welcome namaste.”

In another tweet, the Chief Twit said he’s “paying for a few personally.” Musk then later tweeted he was just paying for King, Shatner, and James.

https://twitter.com/MMPLLCNews/status/1649214461868220417

LeBron James made it public that he would not pay for his blue check either. It looks like he doesn’t have to worry about that expense anymore.

The Verge confirmed that an employee at Twitter recently emailed James to “extend a complimentary subscription to Twitter Blue for your account, @kingjames, on behalf of Elon Musk.”

Ice-T is also still verified even though he has profanely told Musk what he can do with his blue checkmark. He also indicated to King that they are being trolled by the Twitter CEO.

https://twitter.com/FINALLEVEL/status/1649155026349170695

President Biden’s account retained its gray verification check mark without the need to pay a new subscription fee, due to the president’s status as a current government official.

Gold badges for business accounts cost $1,000 a month.

Less than 5% of legacy verified accounts appeared to have paid to join Twitter Blue as of Thursday, according to an analysis by Travis Brown, a Berlin-based developer of software for tracking social media.

Twitter is not only using verification to make a profit, it is also using subscription-based information and, of course, advertising.

As the unpaid-for blue checks went away, leftists and the famous claimed they didn’t care, all evidence to the contrary.

As accounts were stripped, the screams and fake shrugs of leftists fell into the void while most just laughed at their reactions:

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