NBA News on April 21, foreign media reported that Twitter has always been a community platform where overseas celebrities, KOL, and business leaders are most active. Since Elon Musk took over as CEO at the end of 2022, Twitter has undergone several major changes, including deleting illegal accounts and wanting to turn Twitter into an overseas version of WeChat. The biggest change recently is undoubtedly the “blue verification badge.” On Thursday, Twitter really removed the blue verification badge from users, but eagle-eyed netizens found that LeBron James’ blue verification badge still exists. How could the stingy James be willing to pay for it? It turns out that Musk paid for it out of his own pocket.
Last November, Twitter CEO Musk launched the “Twitter Blue” subscription service, and those who want to keep their verified accounts need to pay a monthly subscription fee of $8. On April 1 of this year, James updated a tweet saying, “My blue verification badge should disappear soon. If you know me, you know I won’t pay a penny for this.” $8 is equivalent to 448 Philippine pesos, which is almost the same as the current monthly subscription fees for various popular media streams. James is someone who can even tolerate being interrupted by ads when listening to music. He doesn’t even have his own mobile network and chooses to go online where there is free Wi-Fi. Why would this “King James” be willing to pay for a blue verification badge?
Earlier on Thursday, world-class thriller novelist Stephen King tweeted that he did not pay for Twitter Blue and did not provide phone number verification, but he still kept his blue verification badge. Musk answered this question in the comments below the tweet by saying, “You’re welcome.” It turns out that Musk paid for the fees of “a few people,” including veteran actor Stetner. Is this Musk’s favoritism towards certain people? He is such a mischievous person that if he can’t win, he will join, and he can do whatever he wants after buying Twitter.
In fact, Musk launched the subscription strategy to eliminate fake brands and celebrity accounts from obtaining the blue verification badge, and also introduced different colored verifications. For example, the blue verification badge is for personal accounts, the gold verification badge is for business accounts, and the gray badge is exclusive to government accounts. In addition, users who apply through iOS devices must pay an additional $3 service fee, which is due to the “Apple tax”. Merchants who transact with users through the Apple Store must pay a 30% commission, and now this commission is fully passed on to users.
According to the news, after the blue verification badge verification system was officially launched, many celebrities’ blue verification badges have disappeared, including Bill Gates, the Pope, Kim Kardashian, Tom Cruise, Dwayne Johnson, Justin Bieber, John Oliver, and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey no longer have blue verification badges. If you want a blue verification badge, please pay for it. Elon Musk just twitted on Monday : ” Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.” Also, the prices will be adjusted according to different countries or regions. Canceling the blue verification badge may be to make everyone equal. As for the chosen one like LeBron James, it is reasonable to have a free blue verification badge, after all, he is the stingy James who is not willing to pay for internet fees.
[Supplementary]
Users who purchase the Twitter Blue subscription service will enjoy three privileges:
- Priority in replies, mentions and search functions, and the ability to fight spam and bots
- The ability to share longer videos and audio
- See fewer ads
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