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Published 13:09 IST, April 24th 2023

Stephen King asks Twitter owner to donate his blue tick for Ukraine; Musk reacts sharply

Stephen King said he wanted Elon Musk to donate his Twitter blue tick to charity, and suggested Musk add a bit more money to his donation.

Reported by: Amrit Burman
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Image: AP | Image: self
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After Twitter owner Elon Musk revealed he is "personally paying" for blue ticks of some popular people amid the chaos that erupted following the removal and restoation of blue tickets for legacy accounts, author Stephen King said he wanted Musk to donate his Twitter blue tick to charity. On Twitter, the horror author also suggested Musk add a bit more money to his donation and collaborate with a foundation, which is providing services in war-torn Ukraine.

"I think Mr. Musk should give my blue check to charity. I recommend the Prytula Foundation, which provides lifesaving services in Ukraine. It's only $8, so perhaps Mr Musk could add a bit more," King tweeted on Saturday. He also said that his account was subscribed to Twitter Blue even though he had not paid for it.

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Responding to King's tweet, Musk said: "I've donated $100 million to Ukraine; how much have you donated?"

In another tweet, Stephen King praised Musk for making such a donation. He wrote: "Musk has given $100 million to Ukrainian charities. Excellent. Slava Ukraini."

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Stephen King asks Elon musk to donate his Twitter blue tick

After Twitter's April 20 deadline to remove the legacy blue checks, Musk said that he is personally paying to maintain the blue tick for some famous personalities like Stephen King, William Shatner, and LeBron James. Even though they hadn't paid for the blue tick, their verification badge wasn't removed, and their profiles showed that they were subscribing to the verification mark. However, Musk later cleared up the doubts, saying he is paying the monthly $8 fee for retaining blue ticks for Stephen King, William Shatner, and LeBron James.

Twitter returns blue ticks 

Twitter removed the blue tick from all the accounts that were not subscribing to the microblogging site. However, blue ticks were returned to accounts with more than 1 million followers. As a result of this resolution process, those celebrities who had earlier lost their blue ticks received them back without paying any charges. Bollywood stars like Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Hrithik Roshan, and Shah Rukh Khan had lost their blue ticks over non-payment of $8, but all of these celebrities are verified now.

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13:09 IST, April 24th 2023