Elon Musk has revealed he paid for Stephen King, William Shatner and LeBron James’ Twitter Blue subscription.
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On Thursday, the platform’s CEO removed all blue verification checkmarks from accounts that had not subscribed to its paid subscription service. However, some celebrities have retained the blue tick, despite not having paid for the Twitter Blue service.
“My Twitter account says I subscribed to Twitter Blue. I didn’t,” tweeted horror writer Stephen King, recalling that he’d previously claimed he wouldn’t pay to keep his checkmark checked. “My Twitter account says I gave a phone number. This is not the case.”
“You’re welcome, namaste,” replied Elon Musk, seeming to indicate that he himself had paid for Stephen King’s certification.
The billionaire entrepreneur later confirmed that he had paid for some subscriptions: “I pay for a few [comptes] personally.” He then clarified that he was only paying for subscriptions for Stephen King, LeBron James and the legend of star trek William Shatner.
The verified blue tick system on Twitter was originally used to distinguish genuine holders of notable accounts, such as celebrities, media and organizations, from impostors or parodies. Elon Musk decided to scrap this feature when he bought the site last year, asking users to pay to get the tick.
A number of celebrities reacted to the loss of their blue check mark on Thursday, with Ben Stiller writing, “No blue check mark still feels like me.” The Twitter boss responded with a laughing emoji.