Elon Musk had a three word response to Stephen King's rant about still being verified

Stephen King still has a blue tick on Twitter, and he’s really, really not happy about it.

Twitter deleted the blue verification check marks this week, as Elon Musk continues to roll out the new Twitter Blue subscription service costing $8 per month.

Musk confirmed that he is paying for the accounts of King, William Shatner, and LeBron James to have their blue tick verification badges, in what has to be one of the pettiest things we've ever seen in the world of social media.

All three are critics of the blue tick fees, and have previously tweeted to complain about the move.

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“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.’”

“Just Shatner, LeBron and King,” the multibillionaire then Tweeted on Friday.

“My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue,” King wrote. “I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t.”

“You’re welcome namaste,” Musk responded.

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King has been an outspoken critic of Musk on Twitter over recent times. Back in October when the move was first announced, the acclaimed novelist wrote: “$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”

Musk replied directly to him and wrote: “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?”

He added: “I will explain the rationale in longer form before this is implemented. It is the only way to defeat the bots & trolls.”

Basketball icon James has yet to comment on his blue tick remaining, but he did say last month: “Welp guess my blue tick will be gone soon cause if you know me, I ain’t paying the 5.”

It comes after Musk previously revealed in a memo to staff that the value of Twitter has fallen dramatically since he took over, and it’s now worth less than half of the $44bn he paid for it.

April 20th turned out to be an eventful day for Musk. Not only were the legacy blue ticks removed, but SpaceX’s biggest rocket launch yet ended in disaster after the Starship craft blew up four minutes after take off.

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