Twitter news has been hard to follow in recent months, but not for good reason. Far from innovating or winning subscribers, the social network bought by Elon Musk in 2022 multiplies new rules and flip-flops. Over the weekend of April 22-23, 2023, certification badges were massively removed from accounts that don’t pay for the new Twitter Blue subscription, for $8 per month. Supposed to allow Internet users to identify the official accounts of personalities or media, these blue dots no longer mean anything, since legitimate accounts have been deprived of them while other accounts have only had to pay to display facade credibility.
American celebrities are at the forefront of the sling against Twitter. Thus, actors Charlie Sheen (Platoon, Mon Oncle Charlie, Hot Shots…) and Ben Stiller (Marie à tout prix, Zoolander…) found themselves without a badge and let it be known. “I don’t have a badge anymore and I still feel like myself,” quipped Ben Stiller, who refuses to pay because “Elon will be fine” without the season ticket money.
No blue check, still feel like me.
Charlie Sheen was more pungent: “Dear Elon Musk, I’m sorry your super rocket exploded so spectacularly, I’m sure you’ll be building an even bigger and more explosive one,” he wrote, claiming ” the return of (his) blue badge”.
dear @elonmusk i’m sorry your fancy rocket exploded in spectacular fashion. I’m certain you’ll build an even bigger and more explody one. now, may i please have my blue check back? it would mean a lot to me. thank you in advance, sincerely – c sheen
Oh, a blue checkmark automagically appeared next to my name!
Besides Ben Stiller and Charlie Sheen, Stephen King picked it up and complained: “My account says I paid for the subscription and gave a phone number, that’s not true. Hundreds of accounts have thus been forcibly transformed, free of charge, into accounts that are supposed to be chargeable. For users with fewer subscribers, you still have to pay to get the blue dot.
My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t.
Other subscribers who have paid for their badge have also complained about the new free allocation policy for accounts deemed important. Thus, the French writer Raphaël Enthoven regretted his “stupid impulse” to pay: “I have the impression of having taken the wrong door, and of having arrived, all alone, at my worst enemies while my friends partying in the street,” he wrote, before asking “how do we unsubscribe? »
Since this morning, I feel so stupid for having, in a stupid impulse, paid for my badge. I have the impression of having taken the wrong door, and of having arrived, all alone, at my worst enemies while my friends are partying in the street. How do we unsubscribe?
The story could end there, but the social network, whose engineering teams were decimated when Elon Musk arrived, went even further by returning their badges to deceased people. Thus, the accounts of musician Michael Jackson, who died in 2009, journalist Jamal Kashoggi, assassinated by Saudi Arabia in 2018, US Senator John McCain who died in 2018, Chris Cornell, the singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave, who died in 2017 , or the founder of the eponymous antivirus John McAfee, who died in 2021, now ensure that these people have subscribed to Twitter Blue and provided their telephone number. The adventures of the new Twitter have not finished surprising us.
