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The 13 best tweets the week Elon Musk killed Twitter's legacy checkmarks

Good tweets about blue checks disappearing.

Tim Marcin

on April 22, 2023

illustration of people with blue checks and a screenshot of tweet about people who bought checks

Only the people who paid remain. Credit: Mashable / Vicky Leta / Screenshot: Twitter / @ashleyfeinberg

Elon Musk actually did it. Twitter stripped stripped verified users of their blue checks on Thursday (April 20).

The only people left with blue checks, barring any mixups typical of Musk's Twitter, are those who paid for a Twitter Blue subscription. In other words, a blue check now means that you are willing to pony up $8 per month to Musk.

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Celebrities, journalists, and politicians are all left without verification. And not just some writer with 3,000 followers (cough, me) — we're talking Halle Berry, Beyoncé, and the freaking Pope.

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The response to the blue-check wipeout, however, was hilarious. Musk unintentionally created a great day on Twitter as folks responded to the petty decision. Here are 13 of the best responses tweeted in the aftermath.

1.Halle Berry had a great response to losing her blue check (before she actually lost it).

2. No blue check to hold us back anymore.

3. The move does make it super easy to see who paid for Twitter Blue, and they should be blocked immediately.

4. This really has been the best part of the whole thing. It's now super simple to know who is that desperate.

5. This is a great bit about Musk's other endeavor, SpaceX, which had a rocket explode on Thursday.

6. And again, about the people who paid.

7. I would absolutely pay $8 to make it look like my friend paid for Twitter. 100 percent.

8. Ahhh I remember those days.

9. Margaritaville nailed it.

10. A good meme to hold on to these days.

11. A nice little gotcha on LeBron James.

12. But also maybe not?

13. And finally, my own meme. Because I can.

Topics X/Twitter Elon Musk

Tim Marcin

Associate Editor, Culture

Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).