After public figures like LeBron James and Stephen King refused to pay for blue checks, Elon Musk admitted on April 20 that he will personally pay for their subscription bills.
The Twitter CEO finally removed the unpaid 'legacy' blue checks from the platform, which means that any user who still has a verification badge is paying for Twitter Blue, the premium version of the app.
Earlier on April 20, Stephen King tweeted that the information currently listed on his profile is incorrect, maintaining that he is not subscribed and has not verified his account with a phone number, to which Musk tweeted saying "You're welcome namaste," implying that he has paid for his verification.
Of the 50 most-followed accounts on Twitter, only seven users — apart from Musk himself and Barack Obama, who have affiliate blue checks linked to official organizations — are currently verified, including Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Ellen DeGeneres, Britney Spears, LeBron James, Jimmy Fallon, and Miley Cyrus.
The deletion of verification status comes just weeks after Musk wrote in a leaked memo that the social media platform’s value has plummeted and is now worth less than half of the $44 billion he paid. Musk has also laid off majority of the company’s employees. In December, there were 2,000 people working for Twitter down from 7,500.
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