Elon Musk caves, gives blue checks back to Twitter’s biggest celebrities
thedailybeast.com
thedailybeast.com
I’m not a fan of Elon qua Twitter CEO. But credit where it’s due: he has the humility to back down.
He’s already saying that, since the people “gifted” verified status did not subscribe or verify a phone number (and several have specifically expressly denied doing either), and if you click on the blue check on it says that they are verified because they subscribed to Blue and verified a phone number.
He didn’t “back down”, he gave free Blue to people who said they did not want the product as a gamble that with a little bit of time both their statements and the coverage of him comping it will fade from immediate awareness, but the checkmark still be on the accounts giving a message of endorsement of the offering (also, this article is conflating several different things: giving normal “Blue Check” status to some critics, and the creation of “Yellow Check” verified organizations and “Grey Check” verified “government or multilateral organizations”.) It is also, a gamble that any consequences for the Lanham Act violation inherent in the false endorsement will be sufficiently delayed and of insufficient magnitude to offset the benefit received.
He backs down, when he can't force the outcome he wanted. That's not humility.
Furthermore HE IS NOT BACKING DOWN right now. He's claiming those celebrities, including DEAD ONES, have "subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone".
This is false endorsement, and highly illegal.