Twitter verified fake Disney account, claims dead celebs subscribe to Twitter Blue

“I’ve paid nothing. I gave no number.”

Meanwhile, living celebrities are a bit miffed at the suggestion that they paid Musk for a checkmark. "Friends told me my blue verified check was restored. Dont know why. I've paid nothing. I gave no number," Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander wrote on Saturday.

Actor Ian McKellen wrote, "Despite the implication when you click the blue badge that has mysteriously re-appeared beside my name, I am not paying for the 'honour.'"

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum also told followers that it has "never subscribed and paid for the Twitter Blue as it might be implied." When columnist Paul Krugman wrote that he "had nothing to do" with the reappearance of his checkmark, Musk tweeted a picture of a crying baby at him. Chrissy Teigen complained when her checkmark came back—and celebrated when it went away again.

Dril, a humorous account that was on Twitter's secret list of 35 power users whose tweets get amplified, has been rallying people to block accounts that subscribe to Twitter Blue. Twitter added what Mashable called a "spite checkmark" to Dril's profile in response. Paul Dochney, who runs the Dril account, changed the account's display name several times, and the checkmark is now gone.

In some cases, Musk confirmed that he took action to apply the checkmark to celebrities who are not paying for the subscription—specifically William Shatner, LeBron James, and Stephen King. Many people on Twitter have claimed over the past couple of days that Twitter violated US law by implying that celebrities intentionally subscribed to Twitter Blue. But Northeastern University law professor Alexandra Roberts, an expert on the laws around false advertising, wrote in a long thread that there isn't a clear answer on whether it's a violation.

To violate the US Lanham Act prohibition on false advertising, the false representation must be in commercial advertising or a promotion, she wrote. In this case, "giving some accounts a blue check on a microblogging platform might well fail to qualify as making a false representation in commercial ad/promotion," she wrote.

Media checkmarks inconsistent

NPR, which quit posting on Twitter in response to Musk labeling it "state-affiliated media," now has the blue checkmark and message that it "subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number." PBS, which also stopped posting on Twitter in protest of a "government-funded media" label, now has the same blue checkmark and description.

Application of checkmarks to media organizations has been inconsistent. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation got a gold checkmark despite announcing that it would stop tweeting because it was labeled "government-funded media." The BBC also has a gold checkmark.

When Twitter removed legacy checkmarks, it also got rid of the "government-funded" and "state-affiliated" media labels. The state-affiliated labels previously added context to the accounts of state-controlled news organizations such as Russia's RT and China's Xinhua. RT and Xinhua haven't received gold checkmarks for organizations, but they do have the blue checkmark that comes with the claim that they "subscribed to Twitter Blue."