Elon Musk is verifying dead people’s Twitter accounts in bid to spread blue checks

Twitter has added posthumous blue checks to the accounts of multiple dead celebrities.

Paul Walker, Kobe Bryant, Chadwick Bosman, Anthony Bourdain and Norm Macdonald are some of the deceased celebrities whose accounts appeared to be “verified” through a Twitter Blue subscription as of Sunday evening. It is the latest chapter in Elon Musk’s Twitter controversy saga, following his attempt to mock A-listers who boycotted Twitter Blue by paying for their verification status himself.

Legacy-verified checkmarks were removed from the site on 20 April, with the main way of getting a blue tick on the platform now being to sign up for an $8 monthly fee. Dead celebrities’ accounts lost the blue check along with the rest of Twitter users who decided against paying the fee, before the verification check suddenly reappeared on their profiles sometime over the weekend.

Some of the dead celebrities’ accounts that regained their verification have been inactive for years. It is unclear, however, whether Twitter plans to restore the blue ticks for some or all celebrities — both dead and alive — or if this is simply another “trolling” stunt by Mr Musk.

The Independent has reached out to Twitter.

Last week, Mr Musk admitted to paying for Twitter Blue subscriptions for a few celebrities, including William Shatner, Stephen King, and LeBron James, who declined to subscribe themselves.

“I’m paying for a few personally,” the Twitter CEO tweeted in response to a claim from T(w)itter Daily News that “Some celebrities have been offered a complimentary Twitter Blue subscription ‘on behalf of Elon Musk.’”

He later tweeted, “A troll, me??”, along with a laughing emoji.

Critics of Twitter Blue have argued that the move will make it far easier for misinformation to spread, with users now unable to tell whether or not a celebrity account is legitimate.

The deletion of verification status comes just weeks after Mr Musk wrote in a leaked memo that the social media platform’s value has plummeted and is now worth less than half of the $44bn he paid for it. Mr Musk has also laid off the majority of the company’s employees.

In December, he said there are currently 2,000 people working for Twitter down from 7,500.