Elon Musk has decided to remove free certifications on Twitter, except for three personalities. © Shutterstock — Sergei Elagin
Three personalities on Twitter didn’t have to pay to keep their blue tick. They are basketball player LeBron James, writer Stephen King and actor William Shatner. However, the latter had made it clear that they would refuse to pay to subscribe to Twitter Blue, despite the prospect of losing the platform’s famous blue tick, a threat carried out by Elon Musk on Thursday, April 20. And for good reason, the American multi-billionaire chose to pay for them, and obviously without consulting them.
While the disappearance of free certifications is controversial, seeing Elon Musk arbitrarily decide to grant the precious sesame to three people according to his own mysterious conditions reinforces the idea of a shift towards a two-speed social network. But the boss of Tesla and SpaceX, who is never the last in provocation, undoubtedly took malicious pleasure in imposing Twitter Blue on personalities who did not fail to openly criticize him on the social network.
Elon Musk trolls Stephen King
When Twitter’s paid subscription was announced last year, writer Stephen King took offense to this paradigm shift on the microblogging site. “They are the ones who should pay me”had he tweeted. On April 20, he also published a new message to clarify that he had not subscribed to Twitter Blue to keep the blue tick attached to his account. Elon Musk gave him answered ironically: “You’re welcome, namaste.”
Same story on the side of LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers player, “If you know me, you know I’m not going to pay”had he writing end of March on the platform. Finally, Elon Musk decided to pay for him.