Romain Rouillard / Photo credits: CHRISTOPHER FURLONG / GETTY IMAGES EUROPE / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP 21:00 p.m., April 24, 2023

This weekend, several personalities, although deceased, received a blue certification on their Twitter account. A badge that now means that the user has subscribed to the Twitter Blue subscription, for about ten euros monthly. Which is obviously false in this case.

Bob Marley, who died in 1984, obtained Twitter's blue certification over the weekend. Like the famous Jamaican musician, several deceased personalities have recently received the famous badge. Until now, these checkmarks rewarded the notoriety of the account but now it only means that the person has subscribed to the Twitter Blue service. Many celebrities find themselves without badges, like Donald Trump, Lady Gaga or Beyoncé.

Conversely, Chadwick Boseman, famous for his role as Black Panthers in Marvel films and died in August 2020 or former basketball player Kobe Bryant have just obtained it. According to the American magazine Forbes, about fifteen accounts are in this situation. "This account is verified because they are followers of Twitter Blue and have verified their phone number," reads one even by clicking on the badges in question. According to the British daily The Independent, it could be a maneuver by Elon Musk, new boss of Twitter, to massively disseminate this blue certification and thus promote the subscription to Twitter Blue.

"What a sad and confused place this has become"

Other celebrities, alive and well, have also been awarded the certification, such as the English comic book author Neil Gaiman. "For the curious, I'm not a Twitter Blue follower. I didn't give my phone number to anyone. What a sad and confusing place this has become," he wrote on Twitter. On Friday, Elon Musk had indicated that he paid "personally" the Twitter Blue subscription of several personalities including basketball player LeBron James or writer Stephen King. The latter was also annoyed to receive this certification and assured that he had not paid money to obtain it.

My Twitter account says I've subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven't.
My Twitter account says I've given a phone number. I haven't.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) April 20, 2023

These blue ticks appeared unexpectedly can also constitute a breach of Article 43 of the Lanham law in force across the Atlantic and which prohibits in particular the "false approval". A situation that occurs "when a person's identity is associated with a product or service in such a way that consumers are likely to be misled as to that person's sponsorship or endorsement of the product or service".

its ok he fired the people in charge of telling him its illegal https://t.co/9K01oQwP9k

— slave to Woke (@dril) April 22, 2023

For about ten euros per month, the Twitter Blue offer allows, among other things, to correct a tweet already posted, to write messages that can contain up to 4,000 characters or to halve the number of ads on the news feed.