Elon Musk Is Paying for Certain Celebs’ Twitter Blue Subscriptions

Elon Musk is trollin' real hard with his blue checkmarks.

Despite Twitter's initial effort to remove all legacy checkmarks from its platform, The Chief Twit himself paid for the Twitter Blue checkmarks of some celebrities that refused to pay for it.

Twitter previously announced it is removing all legacy checkmarks on 4/20 partly to reference cannabis culture and to fulfill its promise it made to remove them in late 2022.

Elon Musk Twitter Blue Shenanigans Details

Twitter has finally made good on its word to start removing the many legacy checkmarks on 4/20, one of, if not, Musk's favorite day to reference.

You may recall that Musk previously announced that Twitter would once again start removing the many legacy checkmarks that remain on the platform on 4/20 after he took over in late 2022. On that day, Twitter did start removing all the checkmarks of legacy accounts not subscribed to Twitter Blue.

Despite the high casualties of legacy accounts, some managed to retain their verified checkmarks despite their owners saying they had no intention of paying for Twitter Blue to get verified on the platform. These accounts include NBA star LeBron James, Canadian actor William Shatner, and author Stephen King, per Business Insider.

They didn't exactly retain their legacy checkmark per se - While they did lose their checkmark, they were immediately replaced with a Twitter Blue verified checkmark, much to King's surprise.

"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," King tweeted.

King previously stated he is against the idea of paying money to retain his verified checkmark; he is adamant about his position on Twitter Blue.

However, Musk then replied to King's tweet, saying the following: "You're welcome namaste." James also received a similar complementary Twitter Blue subscription courtesy of Musk, with Twitter sending an email to the NBA star saying he was a recipient of it "on behalf of Elon Musk."

Adam Mendelsohn, James' media advisor, confirmed that James didn't pay for Twitter Blue, according to The Verge.

While this may seem puzzling, Musk did post a tweet saying that he is paying for the Twitter Blue subscription of a select few people personally, though he didn't mention whose Twitter Blue subscription he's paying for. As to why Musk is paying for some people's Twitter Blue verification is still unknown as of press time.

Why Remove Legacy Checkmarks?

Musk hated the old Twitter's way of giving checkmarks to its many users, saying that they were acquired "in a corupt and nonsensical" manner. Due to this, and he is giving verification to the people, he promised he would remove legacy checkmarks in a few months after he took over as the company's CEO.

While he was unable to remove Twitter's legacy checkmarks on his original date of Apr. 1, the company temporarily implemented a new change that somewhat accomplishes its goal: it changed the message that appears on the pop-up when someone checks on a person's checkmark to denote that the account in question is verified either because it's subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.

However, many Twitter users didn't welcome the change, despite its temporary nature; some pointed out that the new notification could potentially give scammers and impersonators the guise of credibility.