LeBron James reveals he's willing to part with his Twitter verification
The NBA superstar was responding to the announcement verified pages have to pay for the blue tick
Image: Courtesy
Legendary NBA star Lebron James through his Twitter page has admitted that even though he is a billionaire Twitter CEO Elon Musk can't get him to cough up $8 a month to keep his Twitter verification.
That's just Sh. 1060 but LeBron feels it is not worth it as it translates to nearly $100 a year just to have the blue tick by your account name. That is close to Sh. 14k gone just like that.
And as April 1st is here with us King James wanted it to be known that he was willing to lose the badge.
"Welp guess my blue ✔ will be gone soon cause if you know me I ain't paying the 5," LeBron tweeted on Friday evening.
For the NBA fans in case he really loses his badge, just remember @KingJames is the real LeBron. Check or no check.
4 months ago Elon Musk announced major changes to his social media platform. He stated that come April 1st 2023 any "legacy" account that wanted to keep its blue verification badge would have to pay a monthly fee with a few exceptions to major companies.
As part of changes after a $44bn (£38bn) takeover of the social media site, Mr Musk said it was "essential to defeat spam/scam".
The Twitter CEO, added that paid users would have priority in replies and searches, and half as many advertisements. A blue tick mark next to a username - normally for high-profile figures - is currently free.
"Power to the people! Blue for $8/month," the billionaire said on Twitter, criticising the old method of blue tick verification as a "lords and peasants system".
Twitter's former method of verifying users for a blue tick included a short online application form, and was reserved for those whose identities were targets for impersonation, such as celebrities, politicians and journalists.
The company introduced the system in 2009, after it faced a lawsuit accusing it of not doing enough to prevent imposter accounts.
The move has been met with hesitancy for several reasons one, the date falls on April Fools Day, and Musk is known to be a troll so there's still speculation it could all be a long planned prank.
For now all we can do is wait and see what happens next.
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