This week on Twitter was wild. Every legacy blue tick account lost its verified tag with Elon Musk decreeing the app users to pay $8 monthly to have the same privilege once again.
Therefore, every celebrity, no matter how big they are, needed to pay for the blue tick. Out of 20 Formula 1 drivers, 17 didn’t choose to pay for the services. The mere refusal of payment by the most prominent Twitter account caused havoc on Twitter again.
Sir Lewis Hamilton has lost his blue tick!! pic.twitter.com/brFH8H7alW
— Changing Opinions TEAMLH 💜LH44💜 (@tribeleader28) April 21, 2023
Multiple users started to impersonate several celebrities. Someone even pretended to be Hamilton by filling in his details as it is and pretended to be the seven-time world champion on the social media app.
So, Twitter owner Musk had to slightly backtrack on his position. On Sunday, a report by Time announced, the world’s second richest man paid for multiple big accounts like LeBron James and Stephen King in an attempt to keep them on Twitter.
Welp guess my blue ✔️ will be gone soon cause if you know me I ain’t paying the 5. 🤷🏾♂️
— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 31, 2023
At the same time, multiple F1 drivers, including Hamilton and Verstappen got their blue tick back. Does that mean Musk paid for them to get verified again?
Did Elon Musk pay $8 for Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen?
Considering the fan following both drivers have, and how much they care about social media life, it’s very much possible that Musk had to empty $16 for the two biggest F1 stars.
Moreover, none of the two are lately active on Twitter. Thus, there is no hint that they could have actually paid for the unusual Twitter service. Musk on his own admitted that he is paying for a few individuals personally.
Twitter was caught falsely claiming the celebrities like LeBron James and Stephen King were paying for blue checkmarks.
Elon Musk finally admitted that he was paying for them. pic.twitter.com/XeRxgMAuCy
— Bad Writing Takes 🖊️🏳️🌈 (@BadWritingTakes) April 21, 2023
It’s also believed that users with over 1 million followers are being given the blue tick back. And Hamilton and Verstappen boast followers much more than that. Thus, it’s highly likely that the blue ticks to the two F1 drivers are ‘on the house’.
A whole new mess
Before Musk stepped in take over Twitter, over $300,000 accounts, including individuals, organizations, and companies were verified by the blue bird app. But ever since Musk brought in the pay for your verification order, only 5% of legacy accounts have paid for it.
This move has also prompted multiple organizations to declare their legitimacy by tweeting. But it also led to accounts impersonating them, with followers even less than 40, disputing their claim.
A person even pretending to be Pope Francis started to weigh in on the matter too. The user once Tweeted, “By the authority vested in me, Pope Francis, I declare @NYC_GOVERNMENT (a fake account) the official New York City Government. Peace be with you.”
