Some critics of Twitter Blue, including @dril, Kara Swisher, and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, say Twitter gave them unwanted Blue checkmarks
Which dril did. — And it came back immediately. Which only happens via manual review. … Kirk Kittell / @kittell@universeodon.com : @Techmeme Screwing with dril seems like a bad strategy. If the universe or karma or whatever has anyone's back, ironically or unironically, it's him. … Tweets: Wint / @dril : Ah they got me. Im fucked https://twitter.com/... @hasanthehun : i have no clue how this happened, i absolutely did not buy twitter blue https://twitter.com/... @nycsouthpaw : I think what's happening is @dril keeps changing his display name, triggering the check mark's automatic removal, but then after a few minutes the CEO's personal revenge team at twitter pops it back on there to spite him. https://twitter.com/... Kara Swisher / @karaswisher : Good lord, I've been LeBroned, Shatnered, Kinged without my consent. No means no, boys. https://twitter.com/... @highyieldharry : Why is Elon buying Twitter Blue for every passed celebrity? https://twitter.com/... Owen Jones / @owenjones84 : ffs what is going on here, has Elon Musk bought me a blue tick? because, to be very clear, I am more likely to come out as straight than buy Twitter Blue https://twitter.com/... Chris Boyd / @paperghost : every time someone says “i didn't want this” it goes out to more than a million+ followers by default, and then everyone else outside of that. every time. amazing marketing. funniest the site has ever been imo https://twitter.com/... @penamerica : Spite checkmarks: Twitter is awarding unwanted blue verification badges to some of the most prominent accounts—including @dril, @mattbinder and @hasanthehun—associated with the campaign to #BlockTheBlueChecks and other Musk critics including @karaswisher. https://mashable.com/... @newsosaur30 : So Musk #fanboys have to pay for their blue checks. While his critics get them for free? And this is the genius who's going to take you to Mars? #BlockTheBlue #BlockTheBlueChecks @elon @dril #MuskRuinedTwitter https://mashable.com/... James Lyons-Weiler / @lifebiomedguru : What is wrong with people wanting free speech on Twitter? Wait til @elonmusk discovers that RANDOM blue check marks arw a vaccine against the “block verified accts” trolling. People, just talk to each other. It is not that difficult. #discourse https://mashable.com/... Jason O. Gilbert / @gilbertjasono : The actual Twitter Files sucked but I'd love to read a Twitter Files-style thread with internal communications about the efforts to force Dril to be verified @jfgariepy : It's okay @hasanthehun. If it helps, we'll keep acting like you didn't buy it. Welcome to the club man. https://twitter.com/... Daniel Dale / @ddale8 : Obviously did not do this https://twitter.com/... Chrissy Teigen / @chrissyteigen : I'm crying I have one too now lmao Zach Silberberg / @zachsilberberg : so they gave dril the checkmark, but the checkmark goes away if you change your name, so dril just changed his name, but they gave him the checkmark again, so he changed his name again... this is the most looney tunes ass fight ive ever seen between a billionaire and a shitposter Owen Jones / @owenjones84 : The blue tick is being restored to a whole range of former blue tickers, so I think they realised that virtually nobody was going to pay for a blue tick and they'd succeeded in messing up the platform and nothing else oops! https://twitter.com/... Matt Binder / @mattbinder : elon clearly wanted to comp the blue check for the two most popular and most handsome leftists on the internet https://twitter.com/... Peter Kafka / @pkafka : Very smart, very cool. No reason a pro-free-speech, pro-egalitarian town square should exclude ghosts. https://twitter.com/... DJ Straylight / @djstraylight : I think what they are searching for they aren't sure if they are in the IN group or the OUT group if they have a Blue checkmark. Many organizations are getting the Blue check like NASA, so all astronauts get checks. Going to be awkward for awhile. https://twitter.com/... Meg Conley / @_megconley : Elon forcing check marks on people who do not want them has real Prince Humperdinck trying to make Buttercup marry him energy. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... @mashable : If you can't beat 'em verify 'em. https://mashable.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Twitter’s checkmark overhaul had just moved from planning to enforcement: the company said it would wind down legacy verification and then began removing legacy badges. Reports that prominent accounts received Blue badges despite denying a purchase complicate the effort to make the marker signify a paid subscription.
The episode overlaps with reports that Twitter restored checkmarks to many accounts with more than 1 million followers. That makes the badge’s meaning less clear precisely as the platform is asking users to treat Blue as a subscription product.
First-order effects
- The named critics are publicly associated with Twitter Blue whether or not they opted in, weakening their control over how their account status is presented.
- Twitter’s verification signal becomes harder for users to interpret: a Blue badge may indicate payment, a platform-granted status, or an exception rather than one consistent condition.
Second-order effects
- Creators, journalists, and organizations that do pay for Blue may receive less reputational or distributional value from the badge if users cannot reliably infer what it represents.
- The rollout invites greater scrutiny of Twitter’s stated grace period for nonpaying verified users and of the rules governing badge restoration, increasing the need for clearer account-status disclosures.
Third-order effects
- If paid verification is administered through opaque exceptions, subscription verification can shift from a straightforward product benefit into a contested identity label, limiting its usefulness as a durable trust mechanism.
- The broader pressure is toward verification systems that distinguish payment, identity, and notability rather than treating one visible badge as proof of all three.
The trend: This is one instance of platforms trying to monetize verification while the social meaning and accountability of the resulting status signal remain unsettled.