renowned thriller writer Stephen King maintained a crossing Twitter with the new owner of the beef: Elon Musk. The reason, Musk’s controversial decision: charging $19.99 a month to obtain or maintain the verified account, that is, with the “blue tick”, awarded to many stars and public figures. Immediately, criticism rained down, among which the author of “Carry” Y “Animal Cemetery””.
“20 bucks a month to keep my double blue tick? Fuck them, they should pay me. If that gets implemented I’ll go like Enron”, the novelist tweeted indignantly, also maintaining that verification is precisely a way in which social networks certify that the user of an account is who they say they are and not an identity usurper or even a brand usurper. And Musk wasted no time in replying. “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about 8 bucks?”
“It’s not the money, it’s the principles of the thing,” King explained to a tweeter who commented on his thread. Many immediately came out in support of the author of “It.” “Steven King being a verified user on Twitter is much more valuable for Twitter than for Steven King, “some commented. Although King’s response was not without ridicule: being one of the most massive and successful writers of recent times, whose novels usually sweep their film versions, many called them the attention that King would like to haggle over. Joel Peitlinwhose Twitter account is also verified with the blue tick, ironically: “Only on Twitter can we see a man worth $200 billion negotiating with a man worth $500 million to save $12 a month.”
According to Musk’s argument by which he justified his measure, the company could not sustain itself with advertising alone, and that is why he would implement the payment of the blue tick, in order to alleviate whats 44,000 million dollars who paid to gain control of the network. In addition, he alleged that the other objective of his plan is to stop improper or illegal uses of it. “I will explain the reason at length before this is implemented. It’s the only way to defeat bots and trolls,” the businessman justified.
But the anger persists, since many consider that the blue tick, apart from officially verifying who the account belongs to, does not constitute any other type of benefit for the user. For this reason, Musk stated that after making the payment, verified users will have “priority in responses, mentions and searches, which is essential to avoid spam / scam”, to which will be added the possibility of “posting videos and long audios».
All against Elon
Musk’s rise as owner of the popular social network hasn’t gone down too badly in many quarters, with many personalities from Hollywood They have decided to leave the network. And it is that the new business policies are not the only reason that arouses animosity against the tycoon: the Hollywood industry has a strongly Democratic and “anti-Trumpist” tendency. Musk, who calls himself a “guarantor of freedom of expression” was congratulated by the very donald trump after acquiring Twitter, and many think that this is the open door for the former Republican president to return to the little bird’s network, from which he was blocked by the previous authorities, accused of encouraging the takeover of the Capitol from there on January 6 of 2021.
Shonda Rhimesthe producer of television hits such as “Scandal” either “Grey’s Anatomy”stated that he doesn’t plan to stay on Twitter “for whatever Elon has planned.”
Another case is that of Ken Olinproducer of the successful series “This is Us”. “Let’s keep the faith, let’s protect democracy, let’s try to be nicer. Let’s try to save the planet. Let’s try to be more generous. Let’s seek peace in the world ”, he wrote as part of his last message, he said goodbye.
Stephen King himself, without going any further, is openly a Democrat, and has always been one of the most critical voices of the former Republican president. We will have to wait to see if the novelist and the tycoon “reach an agreement” or if King will join the list of those who slam the door.
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