Celebrities Slam Elon Musk for Saying He’ll Charge Users for Blue Tick

Elon Musk has announced that Twitter would introduce an $8 monthly verification fee for users who want to keep their blue tick. But some big names have spoken out against the move.

Despite criticism, Musk has doubled down on his plans to charge users who want to remain verified on the platform. 

The $8 subscription fee is cheaper than what The Verge reported, which was $20 monthly.

Users who pay for the subscription will not only get the blue tick, but also the ability to long-form videos, fewer ads, and priority in search, according to Musk.

Lynda Carter, who starred as “Wonder Woman” in the 1970s, wasn’t happy to hear about Twitter’s verification fee.

Carter posted two pictures of herself on Twitter, one wearing the “Wonder Woman” costume and another of her wearing the character’s alter ego clothes.

“Twitter with verification vs. Twitter when I refuse to pay $20 a month for it,” she wrote in the caption.

Stephen King’s threat to leave Twitter over the verification fee caused Musk to reply and suggest a lower price.

Author Stephen King tweeted on Monday: “$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”

In response to King’s tweet, Musk said: “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?”

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said in a follow-up tweet it was “the only way to defeat the bots & trolls.”

Shortly after the tweets, Musk confirmed that Twitter’s new verification system would cost $8 per month.

Josh Gad, known for voicing Olaf in Disney’s “Frozen,” retweeted Stephen King’s post.

It came after Gad tweeted on Tuesday that he wasn’t sure whether to keep his Twitter account or not.

“Leaning toward staying, but if today is a sign of things to come, not sure what the point is. Freedom of speech is great. Hate speech intended to incite harm, (with no consequences) ain’t what I signed up for,” Gad wrote in the tweet.

Research showed the use of N-word on Twitter increased by nearly 500% after Musk’s took over the platform. Yoel Roth, head of safety and integrity at Twitter, said on Saturday evening that 300 users posted more than 50,000 tweets with a “particular slur” within 48 hours. 

Actress Amber Tamblyn, who was in “General Hospital” and “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” quote tweeted Stephen King’s post.

“The irony that Musk purchased this platform to make it more about free speech then immediately monetized it so that it’s literally NOT free for anyone,” Tamblyn wrote in the tweet.

Kevin Kreider, who starred in Netflix’s “Bling Empire,” told The Los Angeles Times he wouldn’t pay to be verified on Twitter.

“Twitter doesn’t really favor me in any way,” Kreider told the LA Times. “I post stuff that doesn’t really seem to hit or reach people, so it doesn’t seem to be really my type of platform to begin with.”

Kreider, who has more than 6,000 followers on the platform, told the publication that Twitter was a “dying platform.”

Eric Idle, famous for his role in the Monty Python comedy troupe, tweeted that he would refuse to pay the verification fee.

“I’m sure Elon will want to start making his money back,” Idle wrote in a tweet on Monday. “But if he charges me to entertain you, and he let’s the orange monster back, I think I may decline,” he added, in an apparent reference to former US president, Donald Trump.

“I say go back to PythOnline where I first did this in the nineties,” Idle said.

Hank Green, an American vlogger, musician, and author, said charging for a blue tick was “100% cringe.”

Hank tweeted that he already paid for Twitter Blue, which costs $4.99 a month in the US, but he would unsubscribe if he was charged for verification.

“Hilarious thing is, I’m a current twitter Blue subscriber, but I’ll need to unsubscribe if they make verification conditional to having a Twitter Blue subscription because paying for a check mark is 100% cringe,” Hank said.