Twitter’s future looks grim after Elon Musk took over the platform. He’s implemented changes that have impacted the Twitter community at large. The check mark became a point of contention as Twitter implements its new Blue subscription. Already, they’ve removed the New York Times’ checkmark for refusing to pay for the service, among other news outlets. However, members of the hip-hop community have also expressed their frustrations, including The Game and Akon, who later claimed he was hacked.
“Back in the day, Twitter was begging musicians to stay on cause they didn’t have traffic. They came up with a verification process to protect accounts from fakes ones, now @elonmusk is taking that away and forcing us to pay,” a since-deleted tweet from Akon’s account read. “FYI, I ain’t paying shit for something we helped build.” The “Lonely” artist later claimed he had been hacked. “This tweet didn’t come from me. Whom ever hacked my account, Please keep your personal opinions away from my profile respectfully,” he wrote.
Akon Claims He Was Hacked
The Game feels similar to Akon when it comes to the subscription service on Twitter. He didn’t take his frustrations out on Elon Musk, specifically, but rather on those who choose to pay monthly to keep their checkmark. As Instagram unrolls Meta Verified, which similarly provides users with a verification checkmark for a monthly fee, the Compton rapper explained why he doesn’t respect it. “If you bought your verification & I know you personally… delete my #. It tells me everything I need to know about you,” he wrote. In a subsequent post, he elaborated further writing, “You a broke cheater, we not the same.”
Elon Musk introduced Twitter Blue as a way to monetize the platform following his $44B acquisition. However, the decision’s been under scrutiny as the verified check mark helped users decipher real accounts from fake ones. Over the weekend, LeBron James said that he wouldn’t pay a fee to keep his blue checkmark on his account. “Welp guess my blue ✔️ will be gone soon cause if you know me I ain’t paying the 5,” he tweeted.