Several celebrities claim that they will not pay for a subscription to Twitter Blue in order to maintain their blue verification badge

Several celebrities have stated that they will not pay for a subscription to the Twitter Blue plan in order to maintain their verified blue checkmarks.

• NBA star LeBron James, who has 52 million followers, tweeted: “I guess my blue tick will be gone soon cause I ain’t paying $5 for it. Haha.”
• Canadian actor William Shatner said: “So you’re telling me I have to pay for something you gave me for free? Is this Columbia House and a penny tape club?”
• Even White House digital strategy director Rob Flaherty commented in an email saying: “The blue verification badge will now simply serve as an indicator that the account is a paid subscriber.”

Last week, several mainstream media outlets including The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Politico, Vox and BuzzFeed announced that they would not pay for Twitter Blue subscriptions to obtain verification. This statement even angered Elon Musk and resulted in The New York Times losing its verification badge on Twitter.