While reports of verified legacy accounts losing their verification badge emerge, Twitter appears to be adding the blue checkmarks on accounts of users that have since been gone, even indicating that they are subscribed to Twitter Blue.
There are no reports or indications of whether it was paid for by Elon Musk or if the deceased celebrities' families are responsible for the verification. It's quite possible that the company itself provided the checkmarks to honor the dead.
How Twitter Blue is Doing
The main purpose of the subscription is for the account to have an indication that the user has been verified, which eliminates bot accounts and shows that the user behind the account is who they actually are. However, it's not exactly going as Musk planned.
Many well-known users refuse to pay for the subscription. Even author Stephen King, whose subscription is already paid for by the Twitter CEO himself, doesn't approve of the new system where people would have to pay for Twitter Blue.
In fact, he explicitly tweeted that he has not subscribed to Twitter Blue and that he has not provided a phone number. He also suggested that Musk should just give his blue check to charity, and recommended the Prytula Foundation.
The foundation mentioned by King provides assistance in Ukraine. Musk responded to the tweet by saying that he has already donated $100 million and then proceeded to ask how much King has donated to the cause.
I’ve donated $100M to Ukraine, how much have you donated?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2023
(We turned down the DoD money btw) https://t.co/wpLa6dTnP6
Stephen King and Neil Gaiman are not alone in refusing to pay for the subscription. Many celebrities believe that they do not have to pay simply because they do not have to. They can easily be discerned from fake accounts based on their number of followers alone.
Celebrity accounts have already amassed followers before Elon Musk took over Twitter, and they did so when they still had legacy verification badges. This does not bode well for the Twitter CEO since the subscription is one of Twitter's ways to earn revenue from the platform.
