From Lebron James to Stephen King: the club of those to whom Musk gave the blue check

Judgment day has finally arrived. On April 20, Twitter began removing the blue check from all those profiles who had obtained it as proof of their identity, to leave it only to subscribers to the paid Blue service. Within hours, international celebrities such as Katy Perry and Justin Bieber lost their “verified” status. Some of the most followed Italian profiles, such as Valentino Rossi, Lorenzo Jovanotti and Mario Balotelli, no longer have the check.

The news, however, is that there are some profiles who, while not paying, have kept the blue check. The first to report the anomaly in public was the American writer Stephen King who, in a tweet, explained that he was registered on Twitter Blue despite not having paid. The same situation for Lebron James who, to The Verge, confirmed that he had kept the check despite not having subscribed to any subscription.

Elon Musk himself clarified the situation, for a change. Twitter’s number one, the man behind the introduction of the paid blue check, explained in a couple of tweets that he wanted to give away some subscriptions. For now, the list of lucky ones would include, in addition to the king of the thriller and the champion of the Los Angeles Lakers, also the Canadian actor William Shatner.

The list, also given the almost proverbial unpredictability of the founder of Tesla, should be considered continuously updated. Also because those to whom Musk has not considered the idea of ​​giving the subscription are making noise, from Pope Francis, who for now has kept the gray badge of the institutional accounts, to Donald Trump, to whom the number one of Tesla had paved the way for a return to Twitter.

Twitter Blue: how the paid service works

It all started with the introduction of the Twitter Blue service, which allows any user to obtain the now famous blue check by paying between 8 and 11 euros. Since the launch of the subscription at the end of last year, the social network has guaranteed a transition period, in which paid checks and checks due to an actual celebrity verification have coexisted.

In short, from 20 April, the blue tick becomes the exclusive prerogative of those who pay, the gray one is guaranteed to institutional accounts and the gold one to companies that subscribe to the subscription dedicated to organizations.

The Blue subscription guarantees, in addition to the check, a series of exclusive features. First of all, the ability to edit tweets, to publish longer ones (currently up to 4,000 characters, but could become 10,000) and to receive favorable treatment from the algorithm.

However, the system has displeased many: first of all, the New York Times, which has decided not to pay for the subscription. At the base, in addition to a not exactly idyllic relationship with Musk, also the change in the very meaning of the check, also noted by other organizations and institutions: the subscription, in fact, does not guarantee authenticity. On the contrary, as Misinformation Monitor also suggests, they could favor the circulation of fake news.