Twitter’s legacy verification has come to an end, and not everyone is happy. Jack Black, using The Super Mario Bros. Movie Los Angeles premiere as a platform to voice his displeasure, expressed how “embarrassed” he is by Twitter’s decision to get rid of celebrities’ blue checkmarks for the sake of paying Elon Musk $8 a month just to keep it.
Black called out Musk’s monetization effort during the film’s red carpet premiere, claiming that it might be “cooler” to not have blue checkmarks. He told Variety that he’s still unsure if he’s going to subscribe to Twitter Blue since he wants to see if Musk can pull it off. He also supposedly plans to make some noise due to this “weird injustice.”
“I don’t know if I’m going to pay for it. I’m a little embarrassed by the blue check to be honest with you. Maybe it’s cooler not to have checks. It’s definitely not cool to pay for it. I’m gonna see what happens if I don’t pay for it. I’m gonna call his bluff, see if he really takes my check away.”
“Then I’m going to hold a big press conference to bring attention to this weird injustice.”
Black isn’t the only actor in The Super Mario Bros. Movie premiere that used the event to voice displeasure with Musk’s decision to remove celebrities’ verification badges. The film’s lead star, Chris Pratt, has also expressed disappointment. At the same time, he also shared that he cares about his followers and enjoys using Twitter to communicate with them.
“I don’t know. I care deeply about all of [my followers]. I’ll do whatever I have to do to stay a part of their lives because I respect their attention and I love to use it as an opportunity to talk to them when I’m doing movies and stuff.”
Before the end of March, Twitter announced that it will be removing the legacy verified program, where notable celebrities and public figures automatically receive the checkmark. Those who want to get the blue checkmark will have to pay $8 a month through Twitter Blue. Musk also revealed that those who don’t subscribe will no longer be able to engage in Twitter polls, a suggestion made after a majority of users voted for him to step down from Twitter.
At the moment, both Black and Pratt are still verified on Twitter. The Bowser voice actor currently has over 562 thousand followers, while Pratt has over 8.4 million followers on the social media site. It’s currently unknown if they, or their social media managers decided to pay the $8 subscription to the social media company.