Celebrities are LOSING IT, Literally ...
The leftist celebrity section of Twitter has gone into full meltdown over the removal of their blue checkmarks as Elon Musk scraps the old verified badges.
Since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter last year, he has vowed to scrap the legacy blue checkmarks for celebrities and public figures. The blue checkmarks are now part of the Twitter Blue scheme, which all users can subscribe to for $8 per month.
The Twitter Blue scheme comes with several other perks, such as the ability to edit tweets, write longer tweets, see fewer ads, and enjoy prioritized rankings in search, to name a few.
On 20 April, Twitter began purging accounts with legacy checkmarks, seeing celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Selene Gomez, and Kim Kardashian lose their verified status.
Celebrities that pay the monthly fee keep their blue checkmarks along with anyone else who pays and verifies their phone number.
Hovering over the checkmark now shows the following message, “This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”
Previously the checkmark was exclusively for “active, notable and authentic” users — such as celebrities, government officials, large corporations, and other public figures. The legacy verification process was extensive, asking users to submit proof such as news articles referencing them, their IMDB page, a valid photo id, and a stable Wikipedia page.
The primary purpose of legacy verification was to prevent people from creating fake accounts and impersonating public figures. The blue checkmark indicated to users the account was authentic and operated by the public figure in question.
Elon Musk has changed all of that:
Along with the blue badge for paying users, Twitter’s new system has several new colored checkmarks for organizations and government accounts.
Official organizations (that still have to pay for the service) now have a gold checkmark, and government accounts (who don’t pay), such as the president, sport a grey checkmark. In addition, automated bot accounts (Musk’s pet hate) are now flagged with a robot icon and the words “automated by @user.”
While a verification badge still protects government officials, Twitter is essentially saying that being a celebrity is meaningless — if they want a blue checkmark — they have to pay like everyone else!
Of course, many celebrities have had a meltdown over losing their blue tick and have refused to pay Twitter for the privilege. This has led to one side of Twitter being outraged at Elon Musk and the other gleefully laughing at their upset.
See the Reaction on Twitter...
dear @elonmusk
— Charlie Sheen (@charliesheen) April 22, 2023
i’m sorry your fancy rocket
exploded in spectacular fashion. I’m certain you’ll build an even bigger and more explody one.
now,
may i please have my
blue check back?
it would mean a lot to me.
thank you in advance,
sincerely - c sheen
We saw some temper tantrums…
Public figures who lost their verified status complained that random accounts would impersonate them on Twitter without it. Actress Alyssa Milano tweeted, “Does that mean Twitter and @elonmusk are liable for defamation or identity theft or fraud?”
Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen tweeted to Elon Musk, “I’m sorry your fancy rocket exploded in spectacular fashion. I’m certain you’ll build an even bigger and more explody one. Now, may I please have my blue check back?”
Musk replied to Sheen, “I feel your pain.”
Singer Bette Midler ranted at Twitter boss Musk, tweeting, “Elon, deciding that I’m not me, I’m a fake, & obliging ME, who has contributed mightily to your platform, (at least until you ‘tweaked the algorithm & tanked my metrics’) to pay monthly because you don’t have enough money & you’re humiliated b/c everyone thinks you’re a pathetic douche…”
On the other side of the aisle, many celebrated the move by Elon Musk and found the whole reaction hilarious…
One user summed up how many were feeling, saying, “I love all the celebs getting on here crying because their blue check got taken away. Do you really expect us common folk to feel sorry for you?”
Another pointed out the irony of the same leftist celebrities who said, “Either get jabbed or lose your job,” are having a mental breakdown over “Pay $8 or lose your blue checkmark on Twitter.”
Many organizations also lost their verified status and have refused to pay the monthly fee for their gold checkmark. Media companies such as the New York Times, the BBC, and CNN have all lost their verified status and are badgeless.
The question that remains is: what will Elon Musk do next to shake things up on Twitter?
FACT-CHECK GUARANTEE (References):
https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/twitter-blue/ [Straight from the source]
https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/profile-labels [Straight from the source]
https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/legacy-verification-policy [Straight from the source]
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