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What do the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reigning New York rap princess Ice Spice and Twitters eminent st-poster Dril have in common?

They got Elon Musks blue check sometime this weekend, in what appears to be the Twitter CEOs attempt to reverse-engineer the initial reasons behind the blue check in the first place. But none of them seem especially happy about receiving the now-checkered distinction.

Who tf subscribed me to [this], tweeted Ice Spice, who, prior to tweeting about it Saturday, did not have one. Neither didDril, who found a loophole to get de-verified that seemingly kept on getting reapplied.

We did not subscribe to Twitter Blue,MIT tweeted in perhaps the most diplomatic response.

Many other high-profile figures, like model and once-prolific Twitter poster Chrissy Teigen and knighted actor of screen and stage Ian McKellen, also chimed in. Teigen joked that they're getting them as punishment, while McKellenbristled at the suggestion that he had paid the $8 for the check. (Teigen and Dril no longer have their checks, while McKellen, Ice Spice and MIT do.)

The message: Blue checks on Twitter no longer hold any cultural cachet or value a mark of fame or some semblance of notoriety turned into a mark of allegiance to Musks enterprise.

These blue checks, prior to their mass removal on Thursday, were bestowed by Twitter upon prominent movie stars, musicians, athletes, political figures, journalists and many other people of varying influence for whom impersonation would be deleterious to their livelihoods. The status symbol of it all was just a plus. But for Musk and his acolytes, the badge proved to be another case of haves and have-nots people (mostly journalists) who undeservedly were given the tick by an arbitrary, seemingly opaque selection process. (For what its worth, this writer received his now-disappeared blue check by filling out a Google spreadsheet at a previous reporting job.)

Musks initial solution the very, very consequential outcome of democratizing blue checks by letting anyone with $8 access the same distinction as, say, a multinationalpharmaceutical company or a titan of the gaming industry blew up in Twitters face.

And, for now, it seems like this solution giving bluechecks to the folks who paid and, once it was clear most people would not pay even when their checks were removed, those who reportedly have more than 1 million users has stuck. Where it gets a bit dicey is that nearly every accounts checkmark comes with the explanation that the user subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number. (That includesactive accounts of celebrities who are now deceased.)

That said, some multimillion-follower users coughed up the $8 prior to the abrupt rule change and are also unhappy with Musk.

So u mean to tell me I coulda stalled Elon out I already had paid fa my st, Chicago rapper Polo G (who boasts 3.4 million followers and seemingly did pay the fee) tweeted Sunday.

Read more:

Elon Musk's Twitter Blue check getting celebrities riled up - SFGATE