Check yourself, Twitter.
Howard Stern said on his radio show Monday that he has no interest in paying Twitter to formally recognize the self-proclaimed King of All Media’s identity on the social media platform.
Debate over blue check marks denoting an author’s “verification” on Twitter began last week when Elon Musk, who recently acquired the social media platform for $44 billion, suggested he might charge $20 to users who want to be authenticated. After celebrities including top-selling author Stephen King tweeted to clarify he would not pay to be verified by Twitter, Musk brought that price down to $7.99 per month.
Stern, who’s the top-paid broadcaster on radio, said on his SiriusXM show Monday that Twitter could count him out as well.
“I don’t care if I’m verified, so take it away,” the 69-year-old broadcaster said. “Who gives a f—k? I thought I was helping Twitter, because they’re like, ‘Hey, we’ve got this famous guy on here,’ and that makes the platform more valuable.”
Though he rarely tweets, Stern said he goes on Twitter for links to news stories and enjoys using the platform. But paying to be verified is out of the question for him.
“If they take that away from me, the check mark, I don’t care,” he said.
When Stern’s sidekick Robin Quivers noted that Musk claims he’s losing money daily on his new acquisition, Stern replied, “I didn’t tell him to buy Twitter.”
“The problem is, you can’t get advertisers if you’re going to have that kind of hate speech on the platform,” Stern said. “I don’t know how you have it both ways.”
Musk last week blamed “activist groups” for scaring off advertisers and trying to “destroy free speech in America.”
Food companies General Mills Inc., Mondelez International Inc. and drug company Pfizer Inc. have pressed pause on Twitter advertisements, while automakers Volkswagen Group, Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche and Ducati have reportedly pulled back spending until Twitter lays out its game plan to curb what Stern, himself a “free speech” advocate, said could become a “cesspool environment.”
In addition to King, producer Shonda Rhimes, Grammy winners Toni Braxton and Sara Bareilles, and influencer Gigi Hadid have said they’d sign off of Twitter now that Musk owns the platform. Musk tweeted Monday that voters should elect a Republican Congress in Tuesday’s elections.
Stern — stating he’ll only support candidates who accepted the results of the 2020 election — urged listeners to “vote, but only vote if you agree with my politics.”
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