Topline
NBA superstar LeBron James said Friday he won’t be on Elon Musk-owned Twitter as billionaires bicker over loose change Saturday deadline for paying blue checkmark companies.
KEY FACTS
“Let’s guess my blue ✔️ will be gone soon because if you knew me I wouldn’t pay 5,” James Tweeted Friday afternoon.
James seems to be referring to the $8/month fee for Twitter Blue, which is social media ’s premium service, which offers verification to all paying users, and starting Saturday, individuals will be the only way to get the coveted blue checkmark and the company began removing the verification badge from accounts verified under the company’s old system.
James’ 53 million Twitter followers make him one of the site’s most popular users One, his one-liners went viral, garnering more than 70,000 likes within the first hour of his posting.
Reigning Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes also said Friday that he does not Will pay for Twitter Blue, explaining that he has kids to take care of (the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback’s $51.5 million in 2022 earnings makes him the fourth-highest-paid NFL player).
Key Background
Musk, who bought the company for $44 billion last October, has been an outspoken critic of Twitter’s alleged libertarian bias in its content policies. Musk immediately took over as Twitter’s CEO and overhauled the company, laying off thousands of employees and quickly rolling out a much-maligned process for paying users to gain verification previously reserved for high-profile accounts and organizations badge. Musk asserted last month that the previous verification process was corrupt.
Forbes valuation
According to
, Musk is worth $201 billion The latest calculations by Forbes , make him the second richest person in the world, too The richest man in the country by far. We estimate James is worth $1 billion, joining Michael Jordan as the only active or retired NBA player to become a billionaire last year.
Crucial Quote
“I’m not going to not buy any app, I’m not going to pay for it,” James told reporter Rachel in 2017 Nichols said in a viral interview that he retweeted the video in reply to the NBA star’s Twitter Blue thread. James confirmed in the interview that he is “the cheapest player in the NBA” despite his $432 million career on-court earnings, adding that he doesn’t pay for data roaming or ad-free Pandora.
Tangent
Several other celebrities say they won’t pay for blue checks, including actor William Shatner, author Stephen King and rapper Ice T. News organizations include The New York Times
and The Washington Post
also Indicates that they will not pay for verification. Musk defended the policy change in a reply to Shatner on Sunday, writing that “celebrities shouldn’t have different standards” to get verified, and despite pushback, removing the legacy verification badge could lead to an increase in counterfeiting and trolling .
Further reading
View count verified: Here’s every Twitter change under Elon Musk(
Forbes
)
LeBron James is officially a billionaire ( Forbes)
