Yesterday, what Elon Musk promised soon after buying Twitter came to fruition: He removed the verification checks for celebrities, journalists, notable figures, and online pop-culture outlets with strange names. Honestly, it was a relief. Last month, Musk made it so that users couldn’t immediately tell whether the verification mark was paid for or provided by the old guard through a verification process. Having a checkmark felt dirty.

Now we know: If a user has a check mark, that user paid for it. As far as Twitter is concerned, you don’t get any lower than someone who pays $8 a month for a useless check mark.

whispers:: “blue check marks you as a bootlicker now….”

— Joanna Robinson (@jowrotethis) April 20, 2023

In fact, it slightly improves the Twitter experience because the For You tab only includes people you follow and Twitter Blue subscribers, and since we can block Twitter Blue subscribers on sight, our For You tab has only people we intend to follow. However, there are a couple of exceptions, notably two people who called out Elon Musk and said they would never pay for Twitter Blue, Stephen King and Lebron James. They still have the check marks because Musk is petty and vindictive, and he paid for them himself in an effort to embarrass the famous author and NBA player.

lmaoooo pic.twitter.com/90e2Gojfms

— Best of Dying Twiter (@bestofdyingtwit) April 20, 2023

I would like to know what it's like to be incapable of embarrassment. pic.twitter.com/p2u5StN3EU

— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) April 20, 2023

I don’t know if Musk actually feels shame, but this? This is humiliating. Consider that Musk bought Twitter for more than twice what it is worth, created a Twitter Blue program to increase revenue but made it so toxic that no one respectable would be caught dead with a Blue Check Mark, and then forced Twitter Blue onto Stephen King and Lebron James to embarass them. He is all but conceding that it is humiliating to be associated with Twitter Blue, his brilliant idea to save Twitter.

For what it’s worth, not that Stephen King or Lebron James would, but it’s also possibly actionable. Subscribing to Twitter Blue is an implicit endorsement of the product; Stephen King and Lebron James specifically chose not to endorse the product, so Musk is essentially freeloading off of their celebrity to make his product more attractive. That is … fraud.

imagine your rocket explodes and it's *not* the most humiliating part of your day pic.twitter.com/vc7ll9m8HZ

— Mike Scollins (@mikescollins) April 20, 2023

Also, if you want to know how bad the ads have gotten on Twitter? He’s allowing actual Nazis to pay for promotion and amplifying anti-Semitism now.

Nazis are advertising on twitter now.. https://t.co/M2gScRmdE0

— Ben (@undeadben) April 19, 2023

The new twitter bans accounts of folks who report things twitter doesn’t like — an interview with a malicious hacker, a link to a site where the CEO’s plane location can be discerned.

This isn’t about free speech absolutism. It’s about being ok with Nazis. https://t.co/inyGmaNlVQ

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 21, 2023

The icing on the cake? In 24 hours, Musk slashed his fortune by almost $13 billion, his biggest wealth loss this year.