Because he has the boring sense of humor of a particularly obnoxious teenage boy, Elon Musk has chosen the unofficial stoner holiday (today) to make the switch over to only paid Twitter users and organizations having the once-famed blue checkmark visible on their accounts. Plenty have pointed out the many, many, many flaws in this strategy, especially with regards to the spread of misinformation it will engender, but like everything (no matter how stupid it is), what the big South African baby wants, the big South African baby gets – as has always been the case, thanks to daddy’s money.
But, for once, Elon might not be the most embarrassing thing online (for a while, anyway). This is because two of his biggest Plan-Blue-Checkmark critics still have the symbol that once meant more than having $8/month to waste up on their accounts: Stephen King and LeBron James.
Plenty of other accounts have lost their status today, although it’s been a bit of a slow burner. Many have pointed out that entire update might not be completed for a while yet, especially given how Musk has ruined Twitter’s backend because he’s convinced he’s a coding genius and not just a rich kid who people have been saying yes to his entire life, so James and King might get some reprieve from the Twitter mob yet (who have taken aim at Taylor Swift, too). Also, it’s worth pointing out that the main tweet calling out Musk consistently posts fake news, including election denial – so bear that in mind before being too mad at King and James.
Some users have decided that the most likely explanation for the remaining blue checkmarks is that Musk is trying to be funny in his usual sad way. The theory is that he’s attempting to troll his famous critics by specifically making sure their checkmark remains up. Normally, this could be easily filed away as nonsense, but Musk has shown he is incredibly petty and hypocritical at the best of times, so we wouldn’t put this past the absolute creep that now runs one of the biggest social networks in the world. Add in the fact that King was adamant he hasn’t paid, and you’ve got yourself a conspiracy theory!
One user even did a bit of primary research, using filters on Twitter’s search function to try and prove Musk, or someone at Twitter, has messed with the system to try and shame his critics.
As of now, both King and James still have the checkmarks up. If the marks of shame remain in the coming days, we’ll know that the pair are, at best, hypocrites. However, if the blue ticks soon disappear, then theories will continue to abound about Musk’s involvement in them staying up for this long.