Mark Cuban Weighs In On The Twitter Blue Checkmark Debate: 'Elon Musk Gets To Pick And Choose What He Does'

With over 8 million followers on Twitter, Mark Cuban is one of the most followed investors and entrepreneurs on the platform. The investor, entrepreneur and NBA team owner is known to voice his opinions on various topics from time to time and recently shared how he feels about Elon Musk. 

• What Happened: Last Thursday, Twitter removed legacy verified blue checkmarks from accounts on the social media platform, prompting strong reactions from users and a handful of celebrities.
• Cuban took to Twitter to share what went wrong with the elimination of legacy blue checkmarks and what could have been done differently.
• “There were 100 ways @elonmusk could have asked legacy checks for $100. Egalitarianism was the worst of all of them. It’s  [Coke] level,” Cuban tweeted, giving the following ways Twitter could have asked users to pay for the checkmarks. 
• “Hey Mark, we know people try to impersonate you or mis-use your image. Our AI will monitor accounts to protect your brand. $100 per year. Sold. Saves me hassle and legal fees.”
• “Hey Mark, we have a program for celebrity entrepreneurs. For your portfolio companies, we will do a review to confirm your investment and give them a blue check $100. For an additional $1k we will offer them a special promotion that gets them on a special For You Page.”
• “Hey Mark, as part of our legacy check mark program we have a special promotion for any non-profits you are involved with. As part of our $100 ID Protections program we will give you $10K in promoted tweets for your face non-profit.”
• “Hey Mark, we saw that there is a new season of Shark Tank starting. Can you let the producers know that we have a special $1k program where we do the same IP verification and protection and will also include $10K of promoted tweets for the show. Please have them DM me here.”
• “Oh and Mark, I forgot to add that as part of the $100 program, you get to write extended posts of up to 2800 and soon unlimited characters, and get edit features and so much more. But if you choose not to join, you keep your check and we thank you for making Twitter better!”
• The tweets from Cuban came in response to a debate between close Musk ally and potential Twitter CEO candidate David Sacks and Box CEO Aaron Levie on whether organizations — such as sports teams, financial firms and Fortune 500 companies —should be responsible for helping to verify their members on Twitter and covering the associated costs. 
• Cuban went on to criticize the end of the legacy blue checkmark program.
• “Elon Musk gets to pick and choose what he does. He doesn’t defer to anyone. This is why the approach to legacy checks is a huge mistake. You are telling the biggest celebs they are not in charge of their likeness, Elon Musk is. This also applies to anyone that makes a living off their personal brand. As Elon Musk goes, so goes their brand,” he wrote.
• Replying to a response from one user who argued that the purpose of the checkmark removal was to get rid of a "class system," Cuban tweeted, “When one person makes all the decisions, rather than the collective making the decisions, by definition you have a class system.”
• Related Link: Elon Musk/Twitter Saga Began 1 Year Ago Today: What Happened Since And What Could Be Next

Why It’s Important: Cuban's comments came after he had asked Musk for assistance regarding a burner account on Twitter and a loss in followers. 

Cuban and Sacks previously went back and forth on Twitter, including over Musk's decision to unban Donald Trump's account on the platform. 

Despite the criticism, Cuban appears to still be a fan of the platform.

“That said, Twitter still is the best game in town for so many different types of communications. It’s scale and type of interaction is unique and right now irreplaceable. If you look at Twitter on a 20 yr horizon, the past 6mos are just the preseason and it’s not hard to recapture what was,” Cuban tweeted.

Read Next: Jesus, God And Satan Have Blue Checkmarks But The Pope Loses His, The State Of Elon Musk's Twitter  

Photo: Gage Skidmore via flickr