Elon Musk finally made good on his long-standing threat to remove the legacy checkmarks of those who were verified by Twitter under the platform's old ownership. Celebrities, including Alyssa Milano, have reacted to the news, sharing their frustration and concerns about the possibly short-sighted decision.
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Non-paying legacy accounts lost their check when they failed to subscribe to Twitter Blue on Thursday.
After sinking $44 billion into buying Twitter, Elon tried to recoup some of his costs by charging users a membership fee to join Twitter Blue, something he said would also grant users the previously coveted "verified" check.
Some celebrities, including Alyssa, worried that they would be vulnerable to impersonation without the certified status. "Does that mean Twitter and Elon Musk are liable for defamation or identity theft or fraud?" she asked in a tweet.
'Hocus Pocus' star Bette Midler also had strong thoughts about losing the check.
The singer roasted the faltering tech icon for taking away her verified status. "After all these years and thousands of tweets and free content, this worm has the nerve to de-certify me," she tweeted in part.
She went on to point out how much revenue she generated for the platform prior to the changes to the algorithm that throttled user engagement. Bette ended her multi-tweet thread by accusing Elon of turning to the money-grabbing scheme after his antics cost him an estimated $182 billon, according to CNBC.
In some cases, celebrities were surprised by the fact that they were still verified despite not having shelled out for the service.
Horror icon Stephen King was among those who woke up on Thursday to discover that they mysteriously still had their verification status. But the mystery was quickly solved when Elon Musk tweeted out that he'd covered some people's subscription services on their behalf — notably some of its most vocal critics, like Stephen, LeBron James, and William Shatner.
Some celebs reacted with humor instead of anger.
Twitter queen Chrissy Teigen retweeted a post from another Twitter user announcing a new program playfully called the Darth™ Seal of Approval. "The only thing that matters," she wrote in her quote tweet.
Meanwhile Halle Berry posted a meme of cartoon character crying as it looked up at a screenshot of her previously verified account with a set of laughing/crying emojis.
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Our favorite has to be the completely unbothered response by actress Kerry Washington.
The Scandal star went meta and quote tweeted the news about the loss of verification status with a GIF of herself shrugging.
No matter how you feel about the loss of the legacy verification, it's clear that the responses are driving traffic to the site. Just how long some of these big names will remain on the platform remains to be seen, so we're going to have to soak up all their checkmark snark while we can!
