“Woke” celebrities are outraged at Elon Musk’s rumored plan to start charging “blue check” accounts $20 a month for their coveted verification badge.
As Slay News reported, Musk is planning to start charging celebrities and other public figures a monthly charge if they want to keep the “blue check” verified status of their accounts.
The blue verification badge is typically given to public figures to prove the account is authentic and hasn’t been set up by an imposter.
However, the blue checkmark is often mistaken for authority as it creates a hierarchy among users due to the process not being open to everyone.
Musk has long suggested he may change the system so that the blue check mark simply means an account holder has verified their identity, meaning it can be an option for all users.
Celebrities are furious that they will have to start paying the rumored fee of $19.99 per month for the coveted blue check mark, however.
Stephen King threatened to leave the platform if forced to pay:
“$20 a month to keep my blue check?” King announced to his 6.9 million followers – on Twitter.
“F*ck that, they should pay me.
“If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”
$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 31, 2022
When a Twitter user argued that King could afford to pay $20 a month, King replied: “It ain’t the money, it’s the principle of the thing.”
Musk responded to King: “We need to pay the bills somehow!
“Twitter cannot entirely rely on advertisers.
“How about $8?”
Musk then added: “I will explain the rationale in longer form before this is implemented.
“It is the only way to defeat bots & trolls.”
I will explain the rationale in longer form before this is implemented. It is the only way to defeat the bots & trolls.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Kathy Griffin is another celebrity melting down over paying $20 a month.
In a post – on Twitter – Griffin said she’s been “enjoying” using the Chinese Communist Party’s app TikTok.
“I don’t think it’s that blue check people are too cheap to pay 20 bucks a month, I just don’t wanna give any money to Elon musk and the Saudi family,” She said of a reported plan.
“I’ll stay until the midterms.
“In the meantime, I’m signing up for all other sites until we can settle on one.
“Look, I like you guys and all, but not $20.00 a month like. Inflation!
“I am enjoying tick-tock.
“I will look into blue sky and I think there’s two other ones people are talking about.”
When asked why not just opt out of paying for the verified account, Griffin said:
“Well, but then my acct and all blue checks will be cloned etc. Nonstop swarming.
“Having to disavow tweets attributed to me. No thanks. Plus musk is 🤮.”
Griffin later deleted the posts, without explanation.
Griffin was responding to a report from Verge claiming Musk has given his software engineers a deadline of one week to revamp how the platform verifies users with blue check marks.
According to The Verge:
“The directive is to change Twitter Blue, the company’s optional, $4.99 a month subscription that unlocks additional features, into a more expensive subscription that also verifies users, according to people familiar with the matter and internal correspondence seen by The Verge.
“Twitter is currently planning to charge $19.99 for the new Twitter Blue subscription.
“Under the current plan, verified users would have 90 days to subscribe or lose their blue checkmark.
“Employees working on the project were told on Sunday that they need to meet a deadline of November 7th to launch the feature or they will be fired.
“Musk has been clear in the months leading up to his acquisition that he wanted to revamp how Twitter verifies accounts and handles bots. ”
On Sunday, Musk tweeted: “The whole verification process is being revamped right now.”
