Looks like Twitter has forcibly applied a check mark to nearly every account with more than a million followers, whether legacy verified (or living) or not, and along with it added the potentially libelous label saying it’s because the person subscribed to Twitter Blue.

@LauriDonahue 🤞🏼

@AstroKatie States and countries also have laws about this. Twitter can be facing as many lawsuits as it has unauthorized blue checks, PLUS government action by the FTC and other national/state agencies.

@LauriDonahue @AstroKatie Why would they want to do that?

@beccaartist @AstroKatie Twitter apparently broke the law and violated peoples' rights by falsely suggesting an endorsement. There can (and probably should) be consequences for that. None of this should have been a surprise to Twitter or its lawyers. They fucked around, may soon find out.

@LauriDonahue @AstroKatie Oooooh!

@LauriDonahue @AstroKatie Also a violation of their consent decree. They have study and reporting requirements before large changes: such as reviving verification.

@LauriDonahue @AstroKatie We don’t want to bring down Twitter, just to get Elmo to sell it to somebody who simply wants to make money from it rather than be its biggest troll/enabler of fascists.

@LauriDonahue @AstroKatie We can always hope.

@LauriDonahue @AstroKatie Is bringing it down a coherent goal for people who are still here? Is there a coherent historical argument for people previously or actually verified that they are harmed by the blue thing in context?

@LauriDonahue @AstroKatie That’s what I was thinking, too. Without the either/or language in there anymore, it looks like all of these famous people/accounts are paying for & endorsing Twitter when that’s not the case and the people “endorsing” it haven’t given permission & aren’t being compensated 😬

@LauriDonahue @AstroKatie My wettest dream is that he finally gets bored and self pummeled enough that he sells Twitter for parts and then it becomes something akin to a public utility, like e.g. public radio... a boy can dream 💭

@LauriDonahue @AstroKatie 🤣