The Kardashian clan has reacted in different ways to Twitter's new blue checkmark system.
On Thursday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk made good on his promise to remove the blue verification tick on accounts who had not committed to paying $8 a month for individuals and $1,000 for organizations to keep it.
Musk said the decision was a democratization of the social media platform, but critics said it has the potential for misinformation to spread from those paying for the checkmark in order to boost their credibility. Twitter announced late last month that accounts that had received verification for belonging to notable individuals and organizations would lose their tick this month if they did not pay up.
It seems that most of the Kardashian-Jenner family who rose to fame on E! reality series, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, are split on whether to pay to keep their verification.
Kardashian matriarch, Kris Jenner and her third-oldest daughter, Khloé, are the only immediate family members to have kept their blue checkmark after Thursday's deadline.
Meanwhile, Jenner's other children including, Kim, Kourtney and Rob Kardashian, along with their younger sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner, have not coughed up the $8 per month.
Newsweek reached out to representatives of the family by email for comment.
Musk's Twitter Blue initiative is part of his plan to boost revenue at the fledgling social media company after he bought it last October for $44 billion. Critics argued the move will mean users will no longer be able to use the ticks for their initial purpose: to differentiate verified accounts from impersonators.
A recent NewsGuard study found the Twitter Blue system has facilitated the superspreading of misinformation. It looked at data of Twitter activity between March 1 and March 7 of this year and found 25 misinformation superspreader accounts that were "verified."
Each of those 25 accounts had at least 50,000 followers and was either affiliated with a website NewsGuard assessed as having spread false information, or found to have spread a prominent false narrative.
NewsGuard found those accounts posted 141 tweets it deemed to have false, misleading or unsubstantiated information. These tweets were viewed nearly 27 million times and received more than 760,000 likes and retweets during this period.
In addition, out of those 25 accounts, 10 were reinstated under Musk after being suspended under Twitter's previous ownership for violating user policy.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more
