Stephen King has another very blunt response to Elon Musk's Twitter plans

"No, no, no."
 By 
Sam Haysom
 on 
A composite image shows two men side-by-side, an older man wearing glasses and a middle-aged man with a microphone. A tweet from Stephen King is overlaid on the top.
Credit: Getty/Leigh Vogel/WireImage/CARINA JOHANSEN/NTB/AFP/Twitter/Mashable composite

Remember that odd exchange Elon Musk had with Stephen King a couple of days ago, where Twitter's new owner was basically trying to haggle for the price of a blue check mark?

Well, it looks like round two may have kicked off.

The whole thing began with the news that Musk was thinking of charging users $20 per month to keep their blue tick verification badges. King, clearly not a fan of the idea, made his feelings clear. Musk then responded by saying "Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers" before suggesting $8 a month instead.

Well, flash forward to Wednesday, and the $8 was confirmed. And King, predictably, still wasn't impressed.

The horror author began with what appeared to be a friendly tweet praising Musk and Tesla (King owns a Tesla, and has previously shared a Twitter exchange with Musk about the cars).

Then, in the next tweet, King delivered the killing blow.

"Musk makes me think of Tom Sawyer, who is given the job of whitewashing a fence as punishment," he wrote. "Tom cons his friends into doing the chore for him, and getting them to pay for the privilege. That's what Musk wants to do with Twitter. No, no, no."

Doesn't sound like the price reduction to $8 did much to appease him. Musk, for his part, has yet to respond. We'll update this post if he does.

Mashable Image
Sam Haysom

Sam Haysom is the Deputy UK Editor for Mashable. He covers entertainment and online culture, and writes horror fiction in his spare time.

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