Musk is Paying for Subscription Costs for These 3 Twitter Accounts as Legacy Checkmarks Removed

Twitter CEO Elon Musk said he will personally pay for the Twitter accounts of actor William Shatner of Star Trek fame, author Stephen King and famed basketball star Lebron James hours after Twitter removed legacy blue checkmarks from user profiles, with famous people including pop icon Beyonce and Pope Francis losing their verified statuses, according to a report by Reuters.

“I’m paying for a few personally,” Elon Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO said in a tweet and later in a separate tweet Musk added, “Just Shatner, LeBron and King”.

Former US president Donald Trump, Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates and reality TV star Kim Kardashian were among those who lost their badges.

CEO Elon Musk earlier said that Twitter would soon change how it hands out the coveted blue check-marks which was earlier given to noted individuals, journalists, executives, politicians and establishments following verification of their identities and these check-marks served as marks of authenticity.

There was also an exchange between Elon Musk and acclaimed author Stephen King where the latter highlighted that he did not pay for the blue check-mark on his account.

“My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t,” King said in a tweet.

Musk replied by tweeting: “You’re welcome namaste”.

The billionaire in November said that Twitter will begin charging $8 per month for the badge in an effort to launch new revenue streams beyond advertising. The social media site currently offers check-marks in other colors – gold for businesses and a gray for government and multilateral organizations and officials.

Twitter also has started adding labels like “state-affiliated” and “automated by” against accounts to show when an account is linked to a government or is a bot.

The labelling of some news outlets, like US-based NPR and Canadian news agency CBC, as government-funded media led to an uproar and both news outlets said that they will pause and restrict their activities on Twitter.

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