Turned into an agent of chaos, Elon Musk has turned Twitter into a territory of confusion. The blue verification mark, which was paid for since April 20, has reappeared for many famous or influential users without knowing the reason or paying the eight dollars a month for the subscription to maintain that distinction, now seen as an image of dishonor. There are those who have unsubscribed before having the shame of recovering that label.
The confusion escalated over the weekend as high-profile Twitter users reclaimed that mark even though they are no longer alive. This message was added to his profile: "This account is verified because it is subscribed to blue Twitter and its phone number has been verified."
Among these users of the afterlife are the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was literally dismembered in 2018, after entering the Saudi Arabian embassy in Turkey; the chief and television star Anthony Bourdain, who committed suicide the same year that the aforementioned journalist from The Washington Post disappeared; Kobe Bryant, a legendary NBA player who died in a plane crash in 2020, as well as the long-awaited actor Chadwick Boseman, who also disappeared that year.
When the regulation that the blue mark ceased to be "a privilege" inherited from the previous stage came into force last week, Musk said that he would pay out of pocket three subscribers who were actor William Shatner, basketball player LeBron James and the writer Stephen King, who had announced their intention not to subscribe.
Many subscribers, all agreeing that they had more than a million followers, verified last Saturday that they had recovered their certification. Many of these prominent users took to Twitter to explain to the world that they had nothing to do with that label, now described as a divisive symbol due to Musk's erratic behavior, which caused some messages of disgust from the owner of the platform.
Accounts belonging to the artist Bette Midler, the gymnast Simone Biles Owens, the writer Neil Gaiman or the rapper Lil Nas X were included among those users who made it clear that they had not paid any subscription.
"By my soul that I did not pay anything, you will feel my wrath, Tesla man," wrote the rapper, with more than eight million followers, alluding to Musk, who touched glory as the creator of that brand of electric cars.
Midler also said that they had returned the verification without doing anything. "I don't know if this makes me a good person or a bad person," said the actress and singer.
Twitter had some 400,000 certified users with that original mark of the verification system, including Hollywood actors, athletes, journalists, activists or advertising agencies.
In the past, that meant that Twitter had verified who they claimed to be the user as a method of preventing others from impersonating them and spreading misinformation.
Now anyone can access that category if they pay the eight dollars of monthly subscription, which starts at eight dollars. But this no longer means that the user is verified, except for confirming the phone number, but it does offer a series of advantages, such as greater visibility to tweets, fewer ads, or being able to write longer messages.
Musk introduced this system to achieve more income, in addition to stating that before many had that status without deserving it or with little activity on the network. But his attempt to capitalize on the blue brand so far seems like shooting himself in the foot.
"I'm crying because they punish me for this," tweeted model Chrissy Teigen out of exasperation at having the blue brand back.
