Elon Musk took revenge on Bette Midler after the Hollywood star called him a worm over losing her coveted blue verification check mark silencing her with the perfect joke.
Bette whined: “Elon, deciding that I’m not me, I’m a fake, & obliging ME, who has contributed mightily to your platform, (at least until you “tweaked the algorithm & tanked my metrics”) to pay monthly because you don’t have enough money & you’re humiliated b/c everyone thinks you’re a pathetic douche, is the funniest thing you’ve ever done. Let that sink in. Sorry to hear about your rocket.
“Elon took my blue check away! I’m unverified! After all these years and thousands of tweets and free content, this worm has the nerve to de-certify me!”
She was not alone. Jason Alexander, the actor who played George Costanza on the hit sitcom Seinfeld, said:
“Ok everyone. Twitter has removed my verification. I will no longer be posting on this app. Anyone who posts as me is an imposter. I wish you all well.”
Alyssa Milano tried to bully Musk with a threat: “So by revoking my blue check mark because I wouldn’t pay some arbitrary fee, someone can just be me and say a bunch of bullshit. Does that mean Twitter and @elonmusk are liable for defamation or identity theft or fraud?
After the celebrities received blowback a Twitter user tried to make peace saying:
“The attacks on Alyssa Milano are out of line. She brought up a concern I think a lot of celebrities have.
Celebrities on Twitter are left with 3 choices right now:
1) Pay the $8.00.
2) Cancel their Twitter Account.
3) Know that some of their fans will be misled, possibly defrauded, and that they may be defamed.
While you may not agree with Milano’s take on this, she brings up choices that virtually every celebrity has to make.
“As hard as it is to believe @elonmusk, some celebrities may not like you. They may feel like paying $8.00 goes against everything they believe in. This means they either close their account down or allow their fans to be misled. Most will likely choose the latter, and this isn’t good for them, their fans, Twitter or for Elon Musk.
“I think the solution here is to put just a small tag on legacy verified Twitter profile pages indicating they were verified under the old system. It doesn’t need to be prominent and it doesn’t need to show up next to every tweet or reply these users make. It could be exclusive to the user’s profile page. It allows fans to click through to a profile to see if it’s legitimate.
“So this will allow Elon to still sell the blue checks, but also allow celebrities to maintain verification, just in a less prominent way.
“What are everyone’s thoughts?
Enter Elon Musk who said: “We’ve started a “save-a-celebrity fund” to pay their $8. We take this matter very seriously.”
A Twitter user said: “LOL! Actually I think this could be a solution, even though I’m not sure if you are serious.”
Musk responded with a laughing face emoji and the comment: “It’s a real thing.”
We’ve started a “save-a-celebrity fund” to pay their $8. We take this matter very seriously.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 21, 2023
🤣🤣 It’s a real thing
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 21, 2023
Elon took my blue check away! I’m unverified! After all these years and thousands of tweets and free content, this worm has the nerve to de-certify me!
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) April 20, 2023
