Surprise! Elon Musk Is Gifting Blue Checkmarks to Twitter Users Who Don't Want Them

Michael Natale
·5 min read
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elon musk and twitter
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  • One of Elon Musk's major moves since taking over Twitter has been to charge for the famed "Verified" blue checkmark.

  • Many celebrities have been vocal about refusing to pay for the once-free badge.

  • Musk, to try and recover from the blow, has begun "gifting" blue checks to celebrities who have refused to pay.

If you've been paying even a little attention to what's going on with Twitter in the months since Elon Musk purchased the company back in October 2022 for a cool $44 billion, you've probably noticed things have been a bit rocky here and there.

And if you haven't been paying attention to what's going on with Twitter lately ... good. Don't. Do not pay it any mind. If Twitter is the Titanic right now, you should be aboard the Carpathia. Don't look when somebody says, "They're close to the iceberg" and just be ready to welcome the eventual lifeboats to the other social media platform of your choice if it comes to that.

Hopefully, wherever those ships land, there's a better structure in place to verify who is actually who. Because, to stretch the Titanic analogy into a Titanic analogy, in much the same way Billy Zane's character grabbed a kid and claimed to be a father when he wasn't, it's now a heck of a lot easier on Musk's Twitter to pretend you're somebody you're not.

twitter verified icon illustration
NurPhoto - Getty Images

That's because Twitter used to have a system in place to verify accounts used by famous or notable figures, from celebrities to world leaders. After going through a rigorous but efficient application process, a Twitter user could receive a little blue checkmark next to their name to signify that they were "Verified," letting other users know this account was held by the real person, and not some random or malicious impersonator.

But because there's a cadre of the most terminally online people who feel that not personally having something another person has, regardless of the reasoning why, is a glaring example of cruel inequality, when Musk took over the site, he decided to "democratize the blue checkmark."

The blue checkmark's value as a status symbol to this particular sect of indignant users now became corporate policy. No more would the blue check mark mean you could trust that the account was held by a person proven to be who they say they were. Now, the blue check simply means the account is being used by special little boys and girls who enjoy getting an internet head pat and want to feel like they're a freedom fighter activist for equality by paying a very rich man $8 a month for the privilege of having a fancy fake badge.

However, Musk, who when he's not busy telling Harvard scientists that he understands aging better than they do or facing lawsuits over cryptocurrency apparently builds cars and rockets and stuff, seemed surprised when the high-profile users of his site didn't want to start paying for the badge that, up until now, had cost nothing and prevented people from impersonating them (which it now no longer would). After a brief dabble in the idea of "legacy checkmarks," meaning those who already had them wouldn't have to pay, Musk then declared that all non-purchased checkmarks would disappear on ... April 20, 2023. 4/20. The meme "weed holiday." Y'know, cause he smoked weed with Joe Rogan once:

Surprisingly, this did not inspire raucous laughter from the world leaders and cultural figures Musk was trying to convince to pay for the blue check. It instead inspired a wave of celebrities publicly declaring, on Twitter no less, that they absolutely would not, under any circumstances, pay for Twitter. Some even said they looked forward to losing their checkmark.

But here's the catch: most of those celebs didn't wind up losing the checkmarks after all. Though their pages say they have their checks because they "subscribed to Twitter Blue," that isn't technically true (especially since some of those Twitter accounts in question belong to people no longer alive).

So, what exactly happened? Well, we found out thanks to a tweet from the ever-vocal author Stephen King. Never one to mince words, King tweeted out, "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." To which Musk simply responded, "You’re welcome namaste 🙏 "

So ... that ... appears to be the solution now? Musk will just be "gifting" blue checkmarks to various notable accounts who refuse to pay for them. Accounts not just for globally famous people like Stephen King and LeBron James, but even the "King of Weird Twitter" @dril, all of whom have emphatically said they do not want the checkmark.

And to paraphrase @dril, all of this (along with Musk accidentally revealing he has an alt account pretending to be a fan that he uses to respond to his main account) appears to be Musk's way of insisting that "im not owned! im not owned!!"

Normally in an ongoing story like this, we'd close out by saying, "We will update this story as more information comes out," but in this case, what if we all just collectively agree to not pay attention to this topic anymore? Wouldn't we all be better off?

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