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Source: Christopher Furlong / Getty / Twitter
Many thought the so-called “Chief Twit” was bluffing when he said he would snatch away people’s blue checkmarks if they didn’t subscribe to Twitter Blue. Well, he did it, and, of course, it was an absolute sh*t show.
While people were puff, puff, passing on 4/20, Phony Stark, aka Elon Musk, did start taking away legacy blue checkmarks. One by one, celebrities and other notable figures began to point out that their blue checkmarks were gone vowing to never subscribe to Twitter Blue and pointing out to their followers, “they have been verified.”
But, some also noticed that other celebrities still had their blue checkmarks well after the social media platform took away legacy checkmarks. TMZ reports that Soulja Boy, Khloe Kardashian, Taylor Swift, O.J. Simpson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ryan Reynolds, The Weeknd, Sia, Nick Carter, LL Cool J, and John Cena still have their blue checks potentially meaning they are paying the $8 subscription price.
When you click the blue checks next to their names, the description reads, “This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”
Remember that a blue checkmark is not the only perk of a Twitter Blue subscription. You can also post longer videos, drop longer tweets and edit them after you hit send.
Elon Musk Is Paying For Certain Celebs Twitter Blue Subscriptions
But there is also some funny business going on as well. Some celebs, like author Stephen King who still has his blue checkmark, immediately alerted his followers that he is not paying for Twitter Blue despite having his still.
LeBron James, who is notoriously cheap, told his followers that he was not paying to keep his blue checkmark also still has his.
“LeCap,” basically calling Bron Bron a liar, began trending, but it turns out there was a reason he and Stephen King were exemptions to the new stupid rule.
Elon Musk was personally paying for their subscriptions out of his pocket. Musk admitted as much via his account, adding that he also paid for William Shatner’s blue checkmark.
What a mess.
You can see more reactions to the blue checkmark ridiculousness in the gallery below.
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Photo: Christopher Furlong / Getty
2. That counts
As promised, Elon Musk’s Twitter regime has begun removing the platform’s trademark blue check verification from legacy accounts.
The mass reckoning started Thursday (April 20), with fans logging on to find that some of the site’s most famous users — Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and more — had lost the elite status symbol, which for years has been displayed next to public figures’ profile names to confirm their identities. From now on, surviving checkmarks indicate that a user is subscribed to Musk’s Twitter Blue service, which grants a blue tick to anyone paying a monthly $8 fee.
“This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number,” reads a disclaimer on Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus’ accounts, each of which retained their checks.
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Just like the rest of the Twitterverse, musicians have had some thoughts about the ordeal. A long running concern with the Twitter Blue setup is how easy it will become for people to impersonate public figures by simply purchasing a verification symbol, something Finneas lamented on in his post-checkmark tweet: “we used to have a system in place on this app that would make sure you knew someone was really who they said but that’s gone now,” he sarcastically wrote.
Musicians like Nicki Minaj, however, are embracing the risk. When one fan told the rapper to subscribe to Twitter Blue so that people wouldn’t mistake her for an internet troll, she simply replied with “I am,” along with a hilarious gif of Mike Myers’ Austin Powers character Dr. Evil.
Other artists have expressed everything from anger to indifference toward Musk’s decision. And then there’s Doja Cat, who says she’s better off without the verification symbol. “Having a blue tick now means theres a higher chance that you’re a complete loser and that you’re desperate for validation from famous people,” she tweeted.
See how musicians are reacting to the loss of their blue checkmarks below:
Having a blue tick now means theres a higher chance that you’re a complete loser and that you’re desperate for validation from famous people. https://t.co/OGiW2xtgRV— DOJA CAT (@DojaCat) April 11, 2023
Y’all mf’s out here worried about the wrong check.— Wiz Khalifa (@wizkhalifa) April 20, 2023
I only have one twitter, it’s this one- anyone ever tells you they’re the real me, with any other @ is lying- we used to have a system in place on this app that would make sure you knew someone was really who they said but that’s gone now :)))))— FINNEAS (@finneas) April 21, 2023
officially no longer an officially verified artist. i love being unofficial and unverified. it’s very moi.— Charli (@charli_xcx) April 20, 2023
Elon took my blue check away! I’m unverified! After all these years and thousands of tweets and free content, this worm has the nerve to de-certify me!— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) April 20, 2023
Elon, deciding that I’m not me, I’m a fake, & obliging ME, who has contributed mightily to your platform, (at least until you “tweaked the algorithm & tanked my metrics”) to pay monthly because you don’t have enough money & you’re humiliated b/c everyone thinks you’re a pathetic— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) April 21, 2023
Blue check or no check… I know my fans still checkin. ❤️— Ciara (@ciara) April 20, 2023
So you’re telling me I have to pay top dollar to be allowed into a new velvet rope circle of hell? I thought our brilliant collective musings, time, attention, and the depression/anxiety resulting from said attention WERE the payment. Lol.— St. Vincent (@st_vincent) April 20, 2023
I kid. I’m not genuinely worried about the blue check mark. You’ll know it’s really me by the sporadic timing and general confusion with which I engage. ❤️ to all.— St. Vincent (@st_vincent) April 20, 2023
After two weeks with Tyler, the Creator at No. 1, Agust D — a.k.a. Suga of BTS — leads Billboard’s Hot Trending Songs chart, powered by Twitter.
Billboard’s Hot Trending Songs charts track global music-related trends and conversations in real-time across Twitter, viewable over either the last 24 hours or past seven days. A weekly, 20-position version of the chart, covering activity from Friday through Thursday of each week, posts alongside Billboard’s other weekly charts on Billboard.com each Tuesday, with the latest tracking period running April 7-April 13.
The April 22-dated chart is led by Agust D, at No. 1 with “Haegeum” and at No. 3 with “AMYGDALA.” Both songs will be included on his full-length solo debut, D-Day, expected to arrive on April 21.
That makes him the fifth member of BTS to reign since the survey launched in October 2021, following Jimin (“With You,” with HA SUNG WOON, for seven weeks; “Vibe,” with TAEYANG, for one), j-hope (“More,” three weeks), Jung Kook (“Dreamers [Music from the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022],” one week), and RM (“No. 2,” with Park Ji Yoon, one week).
In addition, BTS ruled for 24 weeks as a group – 21 with 2021’s “Butter” and three with 2022’s “Yet To Come.” Altogether, that’s 37 weeks atop the tally for BTS and its solo members, or 49% of the chart’s lifetime since the inaugural Oct. 30, 2021-dated chart.
Further, as-yet-unreleased Agust D tracks “Snooze” and “D-Day” debut at Nos. 9 and 16, respectively. All of his chart activity follows his announcement of the album’s track listing last Monday (April 10).
The Agust D entries in the top three form a TAEYON sandwich, with her 2022 single “Toddler” at No. 2.
While most of the chart features new entries, Lauren Spencer-Smith sports the list’s sole re-entry, as “Best Friend Breakup” returns to No. 7 after hitting No. 18 in February.
Keep visiting Billboard.com for the constantly evolving Hot Trending Songs rankings, and check in each Tuesday for the latest weekly chart.
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Elon Musk
It’s beginning to sound like Elon Musk is regretting buying Twitter.
Elon Musk has successfully made Twitter a dumpster fire, and rightfully longtime users of the app have been taking Phony Stark to task for ruining the platform.
In a recent sit-down interview with BBC North America tech reporter James Clayton at Twitter HQ, Musk called the acquisition “quite painful,” From what it sounded like; he is expressing some buyer’s remorse after dropping $44 billion on Twitter.
“I’ve been under constant attack, Musk said. “It’s not like I have a stone-cold heart or anything. If you’re under constant criticism or attack and that gets fed to you, including through Twitter – it’s rough, you know. Now at the end of the day, I think if you do lose your feedback loop that’s not good so I think it is important to get negative feedback. I don’t turn replies off, and I removed my entire block list, so I don’t block anyone either. So I get a lot of negative feedback.”
“If the media is writing non-stop stories about why you’re a horrible person, I mean, you know, it’s hurtful, obviously,” Musk continued.
Awwww, poor Elon.
Musk Admits To Having An “Odd” Relationship With The News Media
Clayton then asked Musk if his relationship with the news media is “odd.” “It is somewhat of a love-hate relationship, although it might be [going] a little more towards the hate,” Musk told Clayton.
“This is part and parcel of having a free media situation. I do take heart in that the media is actually able to trash me on a regular basis in the U.S. and the U.K. and whatnot. Whereas in a lot of places, the media cannot say mean things to powerful people. But I think it’s better that we have a situation where the media can say mean things to powerful people.”
Elon Musk Admits To Enjoying Taking Away NYT’s Legacy Verification Badge
When the hot topic of taking away legacy verification badges from media companies like the New York Times and whether or not it would lead to a misinformation problem on the platform, Musk pretty much confirmed how much of a jerk he is.
I must confess to some delight in removing the verification badge from the New York Times,” Musk said. “Anyway, they’re still alive and well, so they’re doing well.”
Word on the e-streets is that Elon Musk is preparing to snatch away the blue checks and companies who will not pay the money to keep their verification badges.
He also claims if he can find someone willing to buy Twitter, we are hoping someone steps up to the plate to take Twitter off his hands because he sucks at this job.
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Photo: NurPhoto / Getty
National Public Radio is quitting Twitter after the social media platform owned by Elon Musk stamped NPR’s main account with labels the news organization says are meant to undermine its credibility.
“NPR’s organizational accounts will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent,” NPR said in a statement Wednesday.
Last week, Twitter labeled NPR’s main account as “state-affiliated media” on the social media site, a label also used to identify media outlets that are controlled or heavily influenced by authoritarian governments. Twitter later changed the label to “government-funded media” and gave it to at least one other public news organization, the BBC.
“We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and the public’s understanding of our editorial independence,” NPR’s statement said.
The Public Broadcasting Service said Wednesday it has also stopped tweeting from its main account because of its new label and has no plans to resume. PBS said: “We are continuing to monitor the ever-changing situation closely.”
NPR’s main account had not tweeted since April 4. On Wednesday, it sent a series of tweets listing other places to find its journalism.
The company said NPR journalists, employees and member stations can decide on their own if they want to keep using the platform.
NPR’s chief communications officer, Isabel Lara, said in an email that “NPR journalists and employees will decide on their own if they wish to remain on the platform, same for NPR member stations as they’re independently owned and operated.”
NPR does receive U.S. government funding through grants from federal agencies and departments, along with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The company said it accounts for less than 1% of NPR’s annual operating budget.
Twitter’s new labels have often appeared arbitrarily assigned. It tagged NPR with the “state-affiliated” label after Musk participated in a public conversation about NPR on Twitter, and then deleted mention of NPR, but left up BBC, on a web page where it described why they should not get that label.
Since then, it has given NPR, BBC and some other groups a “government-funded” label but hasn’t done the same for many other public media outlets, such as their counterparts in Canada and Australia.
In an interview Tuesday with a BBC technology reporter at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, Musk acknowledged that the British news organization “is not thrilled” about the state-affiliated labels and asked the reporter for feedback.
“Our goal was simply to be as truthful and accurate as possible,” Musk said. “So I think we’re adjusting the label to be ‘publicly funded,’ which I think is perhaps not too objectionable. We’re trying to be accurate.”
Doja Cat lost her verification badge on Twitter as part of the social media platform’s ongoing process of removing checkmarks from legacy accounts who won’t pay $8 for Twitter Blue.
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The “Need to Know” singer took to Twitter on Tuesday (April 11) to reply to a fan who noticed her missing checkmark, telling the star that “it’s over” for her. In response, Doja wrote, “Only fans have blue ticks.”
She followed up with another, more direct thought. “Having a blue tick now means theres a higher chance that you’re a complete loser and that you’re desperate for validation from famous people,” she tweeted.
Having a blue tick now means theres a higher chance that you’re a complete loser and that you’re desperate for validation from famous people. https://t.co/OGiW2xtgRV— TAKE IT BACK (@DojaCat) April 11, 2023
Twitter’s blue check mark was originally given to companies, celebrities, government entities and journalists verified by the platform to avoid fraudulent accounts impersonating public figures. The platform, now owned by Elon Musk, now offers blue checks to those willing to pay $8 a month in addition to features that “offer subscribers a way to enhance and customize their Twitter experience,” according to the company.
Besides the blue checkmark, Twitter Blue features include less ads, a 30-minute window to make changes to published tweets, tweets up to 10,000 characters, bookmark folders, custom app icons, NFT profile pictures, app themes, SMS two-factor authentication and more.
Rihanna hit yet another new career high point this week when she sneaked past Katy Perry to become the most-followed woman on Twitter. And while this was a momentous moment, the record may ping-pong between the twos superstars in the near future because at press time the distance between them is just over three of Katy’s Las Vegas “Play” dates.
According to SocialBlade, at press time Rihanna had 108,278,326 followers to Perry’s equally impressive 108,261,949, with just over 16,000 followers separating them. Both women are hot on the heels of the third-most followed man on the service, one Justin Bieber, who at press time had 113,156,831.
They all pale in comparison to the second-most followed man on Twitter, former President Barack Obama, who sits are just under 133 million, with, no surprise, chief Twit Elon Musk sitting atop Twitter Mountain with more than 134 million followers.
Further down the list, Taylor Swift is sitting in the seventh spot with more than 92 million followers, with Lady Gaga rounding out the top 10 at No. 10 with just under 85 million.
It’s a different story on Instagram, where internationally beloved football players Cristiano Ronaldo far-and-away the most-followed with more than 574 million followers, well ahead of fellow soccer player Lionel Messi (454 million). Selena Gomez is the most-followed woman and musician on the service at 410 million, with Ariana Grande coming in at No. 7 (362 million), followed by Kim Kardashian (350 million), Beyoncé (302 million) and Justin Bieber at No. 11 (283 million).
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Elon Musk
Another day, Elon Musk continues to make Twitter a very sh*tty experience for everyone.
If you open Twitter and see many people on your timeline, you don’t follow or care to follow. There is a good reason for that. There is this god-forsaken tab, “For You,” that shows you tweets from users that Twitter’s algorithm believes you will take an interest in.
It also hilariously is full of Elon Musk’s tweets after it was discovered that the Tesla chief had developers create a special system to flood our timelines with them after his Super Bowl tweet didn’t do the numbers President Biden’s tweet did.
Now, he’s desperately trying to ween the company off the ad-based revenue it heavenly relied on after his purchase of Twitter made everyone say I’m good beloved by introducing a subscription service nobody wants.
For either $8 a month or $84 annually, you will not only get a verification badge, which he is even making celebrities and notable people have to pay for, access to different features, and now have your tweets show up in the “For You” tab.
Musk made the announcement on his personal Twitter account, writing, “Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations. The is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle. Voting in polls will require verification for same reason.”
In the same breath, he also wrote, “That said, it’s ok to have verified bot accounts if they follow terms of service & don’t impersonate a human.”
Twitter Hates The For You Tab & Paying For Blue Checks
According to Musk, Twitter is worth half its value now at $20 billion. Musk acquired the social media company for $44 billion.
Twitter has been clowning the “For You” tab, and the idea of legacy verified accounts having to pay for the blue checks. In a back-and-forth with William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk, Musk told the iconic Star Trek actor, “It’s more about treating everyone equally. There shouldn’t be a different standard for celebrities.”
Riiiiiggght.
In the gallery below, you can see what Twitter thinks of Musk’s new stupid idea.
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Photo: NurPhoto / Getty
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Twitter
Elon Musk’s mission to make Twitter hot garbage continues.
Twitter, well, Elon Musk’s version of the app is now “winding down” its “legacy verified program and is giving people until April 1 to subscribe to Twitter Blue or risk losing their blue checkmark.
The announcement of this is not new because Musk has been threatening to do this since he took ownership of the social media platform, saying since November that in the “coming months,” he would be snatching away “legacy” verification badges given to users under company’s old ownership. After all, he feels they were given out in a “corrupt and nonsensical” way.
Keep in mind Phony Stark benefited from the old verification process because it told people on the platform and those who followed him on purpose that his account was legit.
This could be an elaborate troll job using Twitter’s Verified account because the new rule takes effect on April 1, also April Fool’s Day. Musk loves “own the libs” on Twitter, and many changes he said were coming have yet to happen.
But, another tweet sourcing a report from a website called boing boing claims Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to hide their blue checkmark to avoid ridicule because they dare to subscribe to the service.
We Are Watching These Social Media Platforms Suffer A Slow, Painful Death
Twitter Blue subscribers get other handy features outside the blue checkmark, like posting longer videos and editing tweets. It’s sad to see how one of the best social media experiences has quickly become a dumpster fire that you might have to pay $8 bucks to use to its full extent.
Musk is not the only social media platform CEO pushing a pay-for-verification plan. Mark Zuckerberg just recently began something similar on Facebook and Instagram, and, of course, no one cares for it.
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Photo: NurPhoto / Getty
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Elon Musk is once more in the crosshairs of the public after Twitter users woke up Saturday morning to find that an essential security measure for their accounts was removed. Two-factor authentication via SMS, one of the more normalized security measures for online security, will now exist behind the Twitter Blue paywall and people are letting Musk have it.
While the mandate didn’t come from Elon Musk directly, fears were confirmed by a new post on Twitter’s blog explaining the new move and how two-factor authentication via SMS will change going forward.
From the Twitter blog:
While historically a popular form of 2FA, unfortunately we have seen phone-number based 2FA be used – and abused – by bad actors. So starting today, we will no longer allow accounts to enroll in the text message/SMS method of 2FA unless they are Twitter Blue subscribers. The availability of text message 2FA for Twitter Blue may vary by country and carrier.
Non-Twitter Blue subscribers that are already enrolled will have 30 days to disable this method and enroll in another. After 20 March 2023, we will no longer permit non-Twitter Blue subscribers to use text messages as a 2FA method. At that time, accounts with text message 2FA still enabled will have it disabled. Disabling text message 2FA does not automatically disassociate your phone number from your Twitter account. If you would like to do so, instructions to update your account phone number are available on our Help Center.
Twitter’s explanation did not seem to calm the fears or criticism from the platform’s massive pool of users and many are lashing out saying that this is another tactic from Musk to tear down the once-mighty space.
Keep scrolling to see the reactions to Twitter’s new two-factor authentication via SMS rules and Elon Musk below.
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Photo: NurPhoto / Getty
