Elon Musk and Twitter‘s blue check verification process continues to be underfire. This past week saw Twitter begin stripping away previously verified users of their “Legacy” blue checks, while some big names like LeBron James have the CEO himself paying for their blue checkmarks.
When Musk first announced last year that Twitter will be doing a massive clearance on Legacy blue checkmarks he said, “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.” However, days after Twitter began its blue check purge, celebrities were seen receiving the verification, despite having said they did not pay for the service. While it’s unsurprising that Musk may have extended his goodwill beyond James, Twitter users were quick to notice that accounts belonging to dead celebrities were also verified.
Accounts that once belonged to Chadwick Boseman, Kobe Bryant and Anthony Bourdain have also been given blue checs. When users click onto the blue checks associated with any of these accounts it says, “This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”
It is currently unclear if someone has paid to keep these accounts verified or if Twitter and Musk have granted them blue checks free of charge.
In other tech news, Post Malone called NASA astronauts on the ISS for Earth Day.
