Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has been controversial. The changes the mogul has made have caused a lot of outrage. From mass layoffs to the new Twitter Blue, the hits keep coming. It kept the embattled social media platform on the news for months.
One of the more vocal voices against Musk and Twitter is the master of horror himself, Stephen King. The writer saw the blue check removed from his account. It was later restored but King had a different idea about it.
The writer earlier said he won’t pay for a Twitter Blue subscription. This then resulted in his account losing its verified status. The blue badge was then restored to King’s account a day later.
The Tesla CEO later revealed he paid for the subscription bills of celebrities. King included.
King tweeted with a request for Musk afterward. He asked him to give his blue check badge to charity instead. He even recommended the SpaceX engineer donate the money to the Prytula Foundation. The charity provides critical services to Ukraine, like food and medicine.
King also noted that subscribing to Twitter Blue only costs $8 so he hopes “Mr. Musk could add a bit more.”
Musk was quick to respond to King. He tweeted that he already donated $100 million to the war-ravaged country. He then asked King how much he donated to Ukraine.
Musk had the legacy blue tick removed from all accounts several days ago. This caused many known personalities to lose their coveted verification blue tick mark.
The blue mark is a badge that verifies the account is authentic. It’s a way to distinguish between a genuine account holder from impostors or parody accounts. A blue check beside a celebrity’s Twitter handle means you are hearing from the person itself.
Not all celebrities lost their verification badges this week though. Basketball legend LeBron James and Star Trek actor William Shatner retained theirs.
King unveiled Musk paying for Twitter Blue subscriptions of certain celebrities. He tweeted that his account says he was already subscribed to Twitter Blue. But he wasn’t and he also didn’t give a phone number for verification purposes. Musk then tweeted "You're welcome” followed by a folding hand emoji.
Another user was also curious if Musk paid for his Twitter Blue as well. The former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah tweeted that he hasn’t paid for the blue badge. But his account said he did. Like King, he also said he didn’t provide any phone number.