Twitter Is Adding Verified Checkmarks To Accounts Of Dead Celebrities, Including Kobe Bryant And Anthony Bourdain

Even the Twitter accounts of dead celebrities have blue verified checkmarks now. 

On Saturday, Insider reported that the checkmark — which can only be attained by paying for and subscribing to Twitter Blue — was applied to profiles of celebrities like Anthony Bourdain, who died in 2018, and Kobe Bryant, who died in 2020. The checkmark was also added to the accounts of Norm Macdonald, Chadwick Boseman and Michael Jackson. 

On Saturday, Alejandra Caraballo, a Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic clinical instructor, tweeted that falsely adding badges to dead accounts may constitute a deceptive trade practice. 

According to California's Civil Code 3344.1, any person who uses a deceased personality's name, voice, signature, or likeness — in any manner — for purposes of advertising or selling products, goods, or services, without consent from the person is liable for $750 or the number of actual damages sustained, whichever is greater.

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Twitter now charges users who want their accounts to have a checkmark, which acts as a verification and comes with additional perks and features. Still, celebrities — including former athletes — have been calling out the new blue checkmark subscription service and have refused to pay for it. 

Last week, Benzinga highlighted that Donald Trump, Cristiano Ronaldo, Bill Gates and J.K Rowling were among the big names without blue checks. On the other hand, LeBron James, Stephen King and William Shatner all had blue checkmarks,  which were paid for directly by Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

In response to a tweet that Musk had given outspoken opponents of the subscription serice verified blue badges of their own, the billionaire entrepreneur sarcastically asked, "A troll, me??" 

Users can now only keep their blue checkmarks by signing up for Twitter's subscription program and paying $8 monthly.

According to a report from  programmer Travis Brown, fewer than 600,000 accounts have paid for the service to date. 

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