It’s never too late to complain about Twitter’s paid verification service, especially when other social media platforms plan to follow suit. While some celebrities and organizations received their own gold “official” badge, not everyone will receive the same treatment, so it’s no surprise that William Shatner is now complaining about the new system, months after its official launch.
Shatner called out Elon Musk on Twitter, asking why their legacy checkmarks will be going away unless users pay Twitter. To recap, Musk proposed that users can pay the company $8 per month for verification. Users will receive a blue checkmark, with indications that they’re a Twitter Blue subscriber. So far, legacy checkmark holders have indications that they’re legacy users and that they “might not be notable” compared to before Musk’s takeover.
The actor believes that legacy badge holders shouldn’t pay for the checkmark, especially if it’s something that they’ve received for free in the first place.
People argued that it was only fair for Shatner to pay Twitter for the badge. It doesn’t matter if the blue checkmark is now worthless, users believe it’s only fair since Twitter really does need the revenue. However, since the badge cost $8 a month, the original blue badge will only indicate that you have the money to pay Twitter a subscription.
At the moment, legacy verified users are still able to keep their blue badges. Unfortunately, Musk announced that Twitter will undergo further changes due to the company’s value dropping to $20 billion since his ownership. So it won’t be long until Twitter begins to put its foot down and start charging non-gold and grey verified users to keep the shiny badge next to their names.