Twitter has officially discontinued the historic blue badges, making way for chaos ? 👺

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The news comes as no surprise. Elon Musk announced last November that he would end the historic blue badges, and now he has.

The blue badge definitely loses its meaning 🚮

Historically, the blue Twitter badge used to indicate to users the authenticity of a public interest account, as we explained in a previous article, which you can read by clicking here. It was introduced more than a decade ago when Twitter faced criticism and a lawsuit from celebrities upset that users were impersonating them on the platform. To get it, the account had to be genuine, notable and active. Although the system for determining that an account was notable was imperfect, it at least had the merit of making it easier to identify the real accounts of celebrities, companies or organizations. In short, it was a real guarantee of the reliability of the information.

Except that Elon Musk decided otherwise and had already announced the date of death of the historic blue badge.

Final date for removing legacy Blue checks is 4/20

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 11, 2023

Now the blue Twitter badge just means that the user has signed up for a Twitter Blue subscription, nothing more and nothing less.

While many celebrities refuse to pay, Elon Musk personally pays for others 😯

Several celebrities and companies have simply decided not to pay to keep their blue badges, and are currently laughing about it on Twitter.

😂😂 pic.twitter.com/83LlD3p8gE

— Halle Berry (@halleberry) April 20, 2023

Some personalities, like LeBron James or Stephen King, had announced for a while that they would not pay to keep their blue badge. But surprise, they still have it and it is indicated that they paid their subscription to Twitter Blue to keep it. Stephen King quickly reacted on his Twitter account to deny this information.

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.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) April 20, 2023

But if they didn’t pay for their badge, who did? Well, Elon Musk himself. The Twitter owner said he personally paid for the subscriptions of three celebrities: LeBron James, Stephen King and William Shatner.

Just Shatner, LeBron and King

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 21, 2023

It seems increasingly likely that we will see a tug of war between personalities and companies that do not want to pay and Elon Musk. It remains to be seen who will have the last word. To be continued.