After chief twit Elon Musk made good on his promise last week to remove the obsolete blue ticks from Twitter accounts, plenty of high-profile accounts now appear to be regarding-verified – including some dead celebrities.
It’s likely that the reappearance of their blue check marks is part of Twitter’s wider (but unannounced) plan to reinstate authentication for users with over a million followers. But hover over the blue checkmarks of dead celebs’ accounts and Twitter will tell you they’ve been verified “because they subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”
Michael Jackson, Chadwick Boseman, Kobe Bryant, Barbara Walters, Anthony Bourdain and Paul Walker are just a few of the many deceased stars who have regained their verification status. The platform even claims that prominent journalist and columnist Jamal Khashoggi earns more than $8 a month despite being killed in 2018.
This is the company’s standard message, but in context it seems insensitive to apply it to the accounts of deceased users. In some cases, it may be true that the organizations that manage dead users’ accounts have requested verification (for example, Bosewick’s account usually retweets the Chadwick Boseman Foundation for the Arts). But many of the accounts that are reverified have been dormant for years.
Verifying user accounts posthumously is also inconsiderate, as the blue tick has become an unwanted status for some. A number of celebrities such as LeBron James and Stephen King have said that they would not pay for verification status. Instead, Musk himself paid for their taps — a move that both undermines his claim that paid verification is egalitarian and purposefully antagonizes the high-profile users who create value for his website.
Some users also noted that restoring blue check marks to deceased celebrity accounts also gives unwarranted prestige to the new paid verification system. Popular user Dril (who has been his own battle with Twitter trying to get rid of his blue tick) noted: “it’s okay, he fired the people who told him it’s illegal” – quote a screenshot of the Lanham Act, which bans false approval of goods and services in the US.
In other words, it’s business as normal for the new Twitter: chaos reigns, verified or not.
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.