Celebrities are refusing to pay for Twitter verification badges

Notable personalities are publicly voicing their displeasure with Twitter owner Elon Musk’s move to charge for verification badges on the platform.

Since taking over the site from Jack Dorsey in October, Musk has done away with the blue “legacy” checkmarks that confirmed the identities of high-profile tweeters like government officials, companies, journalists and celebrities.

He introduced three verification badges; gold checks for companies, grey checks for government entities and other organizations, and blue checks for individuals, whether or not they are celebrities.

Musk then put the badges behind the Twitter Blue subscription that he relaunched late last year, which costs individuals $84 (Ksh.11,037) a year or $8 (Ksh.1,051) a month. 

Twitter had said users who have the badge would lose it on April 1 if they do not opt into Twitter Blue, while anyone else can buy the verification badge upon paying for Twitter Blue.

The social networking platform is yet to drop the blue badges of non-subscribers.

However, several celebrities have openly said they will not pay for a badge Twitter gave for free. American basketball star Lebron James has said he is ready to lose his badge.

“Welp guess my blue ✔️ will be gone soon cause if you know me I ain’t paying the 5 [sic],” the highest-paid NBA player of all time, who takes home over $40 million per year, tweeted on Friday.

American supermodel Chrissy Teigen said on Saturday: “oh my god just take the checkmark already who cares.”

Rapper Ice-T also said he will not give Musk a penny, tweeting: “I heard Twitter is gonna take away the Blue checkmarks if you don't pay... F*** that checkmark... I guess it matters to some people.”

CNN journalist Larry Madowo said, “I have no plans to pay for Twitter Blue at this time, and neither does CNN. Twitter says my blue checkmark will soon disappear after 12 years of being verified. Anyone will be able to create an account in my name and get it verified for $8. What could possibly go wrong?"

As for corporations, news organisations are some of the companies that are refusing to pay for the gold verification badge.

U.S. newspaper The New York Times said it is not planning to pay for Twitter verification: "We aren't planning to pay the monthly fee for verification of our institutional Twitter accounts."

"We also will not reimburse reporters for the verification of personal accounts, except in rare instances where the verified status would be essential for reporting purposes."

It did not take long before Musk stripped the newspaper of its verification badge on its main Twitter handle which has a staggering 55 million followers.

The removal was seen more as a power move for Musk, who soon after wrote an entire Twitter thread attacking the newspaper, saying “their propaganda isn’t even interesting.”

CNN said it does not plan to pay for Twitter Blue subscriptions for either our brand or individual accounts, “except for a small number of select teams who need this verification as an essential part of newsgathering and reporting," while the Washington Post newspaper ruled out the payment saying “It's evident that verified checkmarks no longer represent authority and expertise."

The idea of paying for verification – which Musk touted as a way of ‘democratising’ the platform – has been marred with controversy and glitches alike.

While some say the move makes it harder for Twitter users to distinguish between legitimate and fake accounts, some have already started noticing fake and parody accounts mimicking celebrities, companies and politicians that have been verified.

For now, the New York Times is the only account Twitter has revoked its verification badge. Musk on Sunday wrote – and deleted – a tweet saying the company would give verified accounts “a few weeks grace unless they tell they won’t pay now, in which we will remove it.”

Twitter has also since changed the popup it showed once someone clicks on an account’s verification badge from “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.”

Now it just shows “This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable.”