Elon Musk Made The Twitter Checkmark A Digital Dunce Cap

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has been handing out free checkmarks like candy in recent days, after the billionaire swore to remove the “legacy” checkmarks people acquired before he bought the company in October 2022. But even though Musk is handing them out for nothing, that doesn’t mean the celebrities actually want them. Unexpectedly, many social media users have started to view the checkmark as a sign of shame.

“Friends told me my blue verified check was restored. I don’t know the reason. No money. I gave no number. @StephenKing reported same,” Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander tweeted on Saturday.

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Alexander went on to explain that the only reason his account is still active on Twitter is so that someone doesn’t steal his name and try to impersonate him.

“My account remains so no one steals the account name. And I can tell you this madness hasn’t happened on Insta or Spoutible,” Alexander continued, referring to competing social media platforms.

Another person who was “gifted” a checkmark by Musk, horror author Stephen King, has also said he doesn’t want the blue check. King floated an idea suggesting Musk give Musk’s checkmark cost to charity that supports Ukraine and its war against Russia.

“I think Mr. Musk should give my blue check to charity. The Prytula Foundation provides life-saving services to Ukraine. It’s only $8, so perhaps Mr. Musk could add a bit more,” King tweeted on Saturday.

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Basketball star LeBron James, who also received his “gift” checkmark “on behalf of Elon Musk,” according to the Verge, doesn’t want the gift—yet another data point for how poisonous the little digital symbol has become.

Why do these celebrities not like their “gifts”? The checkmark is associated with those who buy things purely to show off. A number of prominent neo-NaziWhite supremacists have bought blue checkmarks in order to increase their audience. This is an association no rational person would want.

Twitter had launched the verification program in order to counter impersonator account. Baseball legend Tony La Russa filed a lawsuit against the company back in 2009 over an impersonator, leading to the roll-out of Twitter’s “Verfied” program. But Twitter doesn’t actually verify anyone’s identity anymore under Musk’s leadership. Now, the checkmark only indicates that there is at least $8 available to you.

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The cost for Twitter Blue is even more expensive for organizations, which have to spend at least $1,000 per month for their various colored checkmarks—yellow for news organizations, gray for political groups, etc. As some have noted in the past few days, organizations can apply to get a Twitter Blue checkmark by simply paying $1,000 per month. lose the $1,000 if you’re not approved. It’s right there in Twitter’s terms of service.

Some people on Twitter have launched a campaign they call “Block the Blue,” in an effort to get users to block anyone with a checkmark. It’s not clear how widespread the campaign might be, but Twitter did ban an account called Block the Blue on Friday, demonstrating that someone at the company took notice and didn’t like it.

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Ben Collins of NBC reported on Friday that Twitter had gained only a few hundred users since the launch of Twitter Blue. This was the second day of the system. 28 new subscribers.

It’s honestly shocking to see the blue checkmark become so hated so quickly. In the relatively recent history of social networks, there may have been nothing like it. In the early 2010s I had an AOL e-mail address, which would now be considered retro cool. Twitter’s checkmark serves as a good example of how to not grow your brand.

As popular Twitter commentator Jeet Heer pointed out on Saturday, Musk has seemingly made the blue checkmark so toxic that he can’t even give them away for free to people who just a few months ago were rallying against Musk for taking them away. The people who have gotten these “gifts” have expressed displeasure with Musk for giving them what effectively amounts to a digital dunce cap.

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“Seems like the easiest way to get a free blue check is to express scorn & contempt for Elon Musk. A strange business model,” Heer tweeted.

It is strange indeed. But maybe Musk knows what he’s doing and there’s a long game at play here. It’s entirely possible. But I’m not going to bet on it.

Update, 4:55 p.m. ET:Elon Musk appears to have given Dril a tick mark on Saturday. Dril, who’s actually 35-year-old L.A.-based comedian Paul Dochney, told Mashable on Friday that he was in support of the Block the Blue campaign.

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“99% of twitter blue guys are dead-eyed cretins who are usually trying to sell you something stupid and expensive, and now they want to pay a monthly subscription fee to boost their dog shit posts front and center,” Dril told Mashable.

It’s not clear if Drill will attempt to block himself.

Update, 5:15 p.m. ET:Dril changes his Twitter display name, which removes the tick mark. Twitter gives him the checkmark after some time. It’s truly a bizarre thing to watch.

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It also appears that Musk gave Matt Binder, the journalist who first wrote about the “Block the Blue” campaign for Mashable, his own checkmark. Binder denies he paid for it and even posted a video showing that he’s not subscribed.

Dril appears to be trolling Musk with direct references to Hyperloop, Ghislane Maxwell and his trademark misspellings.

“now that i have the baneful blue mark, I undertand the pain ive wrought. I was wrong in tormenting dog coin men. im jealous of their million’s,” Dril wrote on Saturday evening.

“building a pressurized 3000 mile long tube across the desert instead of a normal train is actually a really good idea. Always has been,” Dril continued.

“you can disaggrree with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislane Maxwells politics while still hanging out with them in photographs. Its totally fine,” Dril wrote.

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Dril appears to be referring to the below photo, which was taken in 2014 at a birthday party.

Musk said in 2020 that Maxwell “photo-bombed” him in the 2014 photo but the New York TimesIn 2022, they reported that at least a discussion took place at the party.

“According to a Vanity Fair staff member at the time who stood next to Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Musk and shared contemporaneous notes with The Times, the pair chatted,” the New York Times reported.

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“Ms. Maxwell asked Musk whether there was a way for him to unsubscribe from the Internet and encouraged Musk to do so. Musk declined. Ms. Maxwell then asked Mr. Musk why aliens hadn’t yet made contact with humanity, to which Mr. Musk replied that all civilizations eventually end—including Maxwell’s hypothetical alien one—and raised the possibility that humans are living in a simulation,” the Times continued.

Dril has a new weapon in his arsenal to fight against Twitter’s checkmark.

Update, 7:00 p.m. ET: Several other users report Twitter has given them free checkmarks they don’t want, including CNN reporter Daniel DaleThe model Chrissy TeigenColumnist Owen Jones.

Jones, who has over 1 million followers, even speculated it might be defamation to make it look like he’s paying for Twitter Blue, since any user who clicks on the checkmark is greeted with a notice that, “This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”

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“Seriously though, isn’t it some form of defamation to falsely make it look like people have purchased a product associated with being a total loser,” Jones tweeted on Saturday night.

Other celebrity accounts also have the same notice about paying for Twitter Blue even though they haven’t.