Elon Musk is a popular yet controversial figure in the business world. His polarizing comments on a variety of topics like science, politics, and other things, often land him in trouble. Lately, the South African billionaire has been in the news for his Twitter takeover.
Recently, the social media giant revoked legacy badges from users and retained blue checks for people who paid for them. Ross Gerber, who is a major investor on Twitter and Tesla Inc. has called Musk a “hypocrite.” So let’s find out in detail what he said and the reason behind it.
Elon Musk Is Getting Called Out By His Investors
The way Elon Musk has been handling Twitter has been chaotic and unhinged. Now one of the top investors of the social media giant as well as Tesla, Ross Gerber, has slammed Musk for it.
According to Business Insider, Gerber has particularly criticized the way Twitter gave out blue check marks to users. “Elon went out of his way to insult people with blue checks as being entitled famous people, and implied that the system he was creating was this egalitarian free world where verification was just based off being you — and famous people wouldn’t get this free privilege,” he said.
Gerber further said, “So when he reversed himself he just looked like a total hypocrite, and then the way he did it was even worse because then he gave it to people with at least one million followers.”
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Twitter Blue Rollout Has Been Confusing
Twitter Blue was launched last year right after the acquisition. But it immediately backfired after several users bought the verified badge and renamed themselves as famous people and or brands.
The policy was revoked and was reintroduced this year in April. Twitter ended the legacy badge of users but people quickly noticed that some celebrities were still verified despite not paying for it.
Names like Stephen King, LeBron James, and William Shatner have their accounts’ verified as Musk is personally paying for them. Apart from this, accounts of several dead celebrities have also been verified like Kobe Bryant, Chadwick Boseman, and Anthony Bourdain.
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