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Confusion surrounding Twitter deepened over the weekend after a number of high-profile accounts saw their prized blue check-marks reinstated — even though some of their owners have been dead for years.
Celebrities and public figures took to the platform to deny having paid for the US$8-a-month that yields the coloured tick, despite labels stating the “account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”
Unpaid, legacy blue ticks — which once conferred authenticity on accounts verified by the company — were removed last week as part of billionaire owner Elon Musk’s push to boost revenue.
“For the curious, I’m not subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t given anyone my phone number,” fantasy author Neil Gaiman wrote. British actor Ian McKellen said he isn’t “paying for the ‘honour’.” Even the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, which also received the blue mark, sought to clarify that it has “never subscribed and paid” for the service.
Twitter has drawn fire for shifting policies as well as a series of outages since Musk took over the platform for US$44 billion and fired many of its staff. Users were quick to speculate on whether the label was automatically provided to accounts that cleared a million subscribers. But there appeared to be key exceptions, with the profiles of stars like actor Ryan Reynolds still missing a blue tick he once held, despite having more than 21 million followers.
More bewilderment was in store after people noticed that dead personalities’ accounts also sported the label, such as celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and National Basketball Association player Kobe Bryant. Bourdain died in 2018 and Bryant in 2020. — Bloomberg.
Online Reporter