WIRED has an interesting article on the fiasco prompted by Chief Twit Elon Musk's decision to make Twitter users pay $8 per month for the "verified" blue check mark. In a desperate effort to force getting revenue to cover his overpriced buy of Twitter and loss of advertisers, Musk eliminated the blue check symbol from hundreds of thousands of users who declined to pay up. But he also kept the blue check marks for several celebrities despite their refusal to pay the monthly fee (e.g., Stephen King, LeBron James). As the article points out, that could lead to lawsuits:
"More confusion followed as Twitter backtracked on Musk’s put-up-or-shut up approach to verification. It now appears any legacy Twitter user with more than a million followers before April 20 has had their check mark reinstated, along with a note saying they’ve paid for it. Many profess they haven’t, which, if true, could open Twitter to a host of legal problems.
'There are a number of potential legal claims we could see over Twitter assigning blue checks to accounts that did not sign up for them and do not want them,' says Alexandra Roberts, professor of law and media at Northeastern University. 'Given that the blue checks purport to be for users that are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.'
Among the laws Twitter could be in breach of, Roberts says, are federal laws prohibiting false advertising or endorsement and state laws against unfair competition claims, as well as suits over defamation and misappropriation of right of publicity. Any cases under these laws (“none is a slam dunk,” according to Roberts) would need to prove that Twitter’s false claim that celebrities had paid for Blue constitutes an endorsement of the service or commercial use by the platform, or that consumers seeing them would be misled.' [snip]
'What Musk is doing in paying for some celebrities to retain a blue tick can be considered as an unfair or deceptive practice because it creates an impression to the public—including consumers—that these specific celebrities are endorsing Twitter’s business models,' says Catalina Goanta, associate professor in law, economics, and governance at Utrecht University School of Law." (our emphasis)
Musk has the deep pockets to afford a legal defense if necessary. But this is yet another unforced error by the narcissistic right-wing exploding rocket and car maker, who wanted to control the messaging on Twitter, but has utterly failed to maintain its integrity or viability.
(photo illustration: Smelling that Musk-y smell/ Maura Losch; Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
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