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What Next TBD: Stephen King Is Just as Confused About Blue Checks as You Are

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Twitter’s “blue check” verification went from something you applied for, to something you could pay for, to something you had to pay for…to something that many celebrities wouldn’t even accept for free. Master of horror Stephen King told us he wouldn’t pay for a blue check, but he’s not going to fight it either—he just doesn’t really understand what’s going on. Does anyone at Twitter understand? Guests: Alex Heath, deputy editor of The Verge Jon Favreau, co-founder of Crooked Media, speechwriter for President Barack Obama Stephen King, freelancer author If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Did you know choosing the train over your car can cut your carbon footprint by up to two thirds?

0:06.0

So, one family outing at a time, one little adventurer at a time, one trip to the museum, one dinner in the city, one nap on the way home at a time.

0:18.0

One train journey at a time can help create a greener future.

0:23.0

So when will you take your next trip? Find out more at nationalrail.co.uk slash greener.

0:30.0

Hey everyone, just a heads up that there is some swearing in this episode. Okay, here's the show.

0:41.0

Steve, can you tell me who you are and what you do?

0:47.0

My name is Stephen King. I'm a writer, freelance writer, novelist, short story writer, and sometimes SAs and that's what I do.

0:59.0

That's who I am and what I do.

1:01.0

And you have 7.1 million Twitter followers last time I checked.

1:05.0

If you say so.

1:08.0

Stephen King, yes, that's Stephen King. Agreed to talk to me because he, like many Twitter users, had a somewhat confusing weekend online.

1:18.0

Late last week, Twitter began removing verification badges, aka Blue Checkmarks from Legacy Verified Accounts and only keeping them for people who paid $8 a month for Twitter Blue.

1:31.0

Except Stephen never paid.

1:33.0

You tweeted on April 20th my Twitter account says I've subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven't, my Twitter account says I've given a phone number. I haven't.

1:42.0

What do you make of this state of affairs?

1:45.0

Well, I don't really understand it. I mean Elon Musk after I said that, he tweeted back that thank you and then the little praying hands thing that made me feel good.

2:01.0

And I thought to myself, you know what, this is really kind of weird. He gifted me this thing but it said on the original Blue Check that I'd actually approved of it or I had paid for it or given a phone number and none of that stuff was true.

2:22.0

And he's not alone, a slew of celebrities, LeBron James, Green Larson and William Shatner, among others, still have Blue checks. None of them have subscribed to Twitter Blue either. Elon Musk has implied that he's personally paying for them, even if they don't want him to.

2:40.0

Some people have theorized that accounts with over a million followers are automatically getting Blue checks. That seems to be what happened to John Favreau who has 1.4 million followers.

2:53.0

I did not know, I did not, I did not subscribe because I do not want to give Elon Musk any money.

3:01.0

John co-founded Quick and Media, host several podcasts they are and used to work for President Obama. And his checkmark just appeared though he did think about getting rid of it.

3:12.0

There's some people who were telling me like, well, if you change your name, then the checkmark can go away but then you can't say anything about it or else it will come back.

...

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