Stephen King is famous for his elaborate plots, so perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising to see him mixing it with a billionaire tycoon on social media.
Twitter owner, Elon Musk, and the horror author have been going back and forth on the social media platform in recent days, with Musk’s decision to pay for King’s subscription at the root of the issue.
King claims that Twitter Blue is being paid for by Musk without his consent.
For those of you unfamiliar with ‘Twitter Blue’, it’s a new subscription service that gives Twitter users the famous blue check mark, amongst other benefits. In the past, the check mark was awarded freely to those in the public eye as a way of preventing fake profiles.
However, the check mark now comes with a cost and is more widely available, with Musk paying the associated charge for a few celebrities. Carrie author, Stephen King, is one such person who has been in receipt of Musk’s ‘generosity’.
However, King is not impressed with Musk taking the choice out of his hands, complaining about the issue via his personal profile on the site. He wrote: “My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t.”
Musk responded with the succinct message: “You’re welcome, namaste 🙏.” However, like many of King’s characters, the issue refused to die.
King requested that Musk donate the price of the subscription to a pro-Ukraine charity. Seemingly growing tired of the criticism, Musk responded: “I’ve donated $100M to Ukraine, how much have you donated?”
King has previously described the Tesla owner as “a visionary (who) almost singlehandedly… changed the way Americans think about automobiles.” However, he did follow that up with his view that Musk is “a terrible fit for Twitter”, adding that he thinks the entrepreneur is “making it up as he goes along.”
Although the issue seems to be put to bed for now, we wouldn’t be surprised if it makes a return. After all, if King’s books and movies are anything to on, there is always more action in the sequel.
