Twitter community balks at paying Elon Musk for a blue check mark

The blue checkmarks that served as identification on Twitter for people like William Shatner, Monica Lewinsky, and other active users — some well-known celebrities, some obscure journalists — may soon disappear.

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With a monthly payment of up to $11, they might get their marks back. Yet other veteran users, like 92-year-old Star Trek icon William Shatner, have been reluctant to pay for the premium service promoted by Twitter's billionaire founder and CEO Elon Musk.

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Musk has finally set a deadline for celebrities, journalists, and other people who had been verified for free to pay up or risk losing their legacy status, and he is cheerfully assuring that Saturday will be that date.

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He responded to a Twitter user who pointed out that Saturday is also April Fools' Day on Monday with the phrase "It will be marvelous."

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Musk has been attempting to increase the number of users who subscribe to premium services on Twitter since he paid $44 billion for the faltering social media network in October. His action, however, also reflects his claim that elite figures in the media, such as news reporters, have come to view the blue verification marks as an unjustified or "corrupt" status symbol.

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The main reason Twitter marked profiles with a blue check mark about 14 years ago, in addition to verifying celebrities, was that the free blue check mark was meant to verify politicians, activists, and people who suddenly found themselves in the media. Aside from verifying celebrities, they also wanted to use it to curb misinformation coming from accounts that are impersonating people as well as little-known journalists at small publications throughout the world.

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There was at least one person who was impersonating Lewinsky that appeared to have paid for a blue checkmark on one of the screenshots that she tweeted on Sunday. Basically, her question was, "What universe is this fair to those who are liable to face consequences for the impersonation of someone else? The truth doesn't even get out of the door before a lie travels halfway around the world before it reaches its destination."

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Known for his irreverent humor, Shatner also criticized Musk's promises.

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He commented, "I've been contributing for 15 years for nothing but bupkis, donating my (clock emoji) & humorous views. You just told me I had to pay for something you offered me for free, are you serious?”

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Musk retorted that there shouldn't be a special norm for famous people. It's more about treating everyone fairly, Musk wrote in a tweet.

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Beyoncé, Stephen King, Barack and Michelle Obama, Taylor Swift, Tucker Carlson, Drake, and Elon Musk are among the celebrities who still have the blue check but appear to not have paid the premium fee. Messages stating that their profile is a "legacy verified account" have been added to their profiles as of right now. That might or might not be significant.

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However, even though "the attention is reasonably on celebrities because of our culture," open government proponent Alex Howard, director of the Digital Democracy Project, is more worried about the ease with which impersonators could spread rumors and conspiracies that could harm democracies around the world or move markets.

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According to Howard, the purpose of verification on this platform is to avoid impersonation, not just to identify persons as important or authority.

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After taking over Twitter, one of Musk's first product decisions was to introduce a service that offered blue checks to anyone willing to pay $8 per month. Days after its launch, Twitter had to temporarily halt the service due to the influx of phony accounts, which included ones mimicking Nintendo, Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical corporation, and Musk's companies Tesla and SpaceX.

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For $8 per month for web users and $11 per month for iPhone and iPad users, the relaunched service is now available. Less advertising is meant to be displayed, longer films can be posted, and tweets are supposed to be displayed more prominently for subscribers.