Hah, that's an interesting way to sell a product: "buy this to embarrass people you don't like!". So groups of people who don't like Stephen King' or LeBron James' stances on Twitter could continuously keep their accounts ticked blue, to annoy them...
So, Elon would be providing a way to harass people, I suppose until they think the harassment isn't worth the megaphone-reach that their account has accrued (which is worth less and less the more dickish the CEO becomes).
To go down the rabbit hole that the GP started (about letting people for other people's blue checkmarks), the false endorsement bit can be easily solved by changing the wording of the blue checkmark to be like Reddit Gold: it's something that can be "awarded" to you. Obviously it wouldn't fix how toxic the place is, but I think if the goal is to get out of being sued, it would be enough.
> the false endorsement bit can be easily solved by changing the wording of the blue checkmark to be like Reddit Gold: it's something that can be "awarded" to you.
Would changing that text actually be enough? On its face it would still appear to other users as if the people Musk "sponsored" are real subscribers. How many people are going to (know to) click through to those checkmarked users' profiles, click on the blue checkmarks, and discover that bit of information? Especially if the number of sponsored users are a handful out of tens of thousands checkmarked users, meaning that even a person who was in the know would probably be disincentivized from checking every checkmark they saw.
It can definitely be solved. But right now that wording represents "false endorsement" and people are already confused about it and telling those affected that "they've lied" and what not.
It can also be solved by the people who don’t want blue ticks stuck on their account involuntarily simply joining the exodus of people departing Twitter.
So, Elon would be providing a way to harass people, I suppose until they think the harassment isn't worth the megaphone-reach that their account has accrued (which is worth less and less the more dickish the CEO becomes).