According Business Insider: K-pop supergroup BTS – like hundreds of other celebrities – lost their blue checkmark on Twitter.
At press time, the band had not paid to restore its blue checkmark under Elon Musk’s Twitter handle.
K-pop supergroup BTS has not paid an $8 membership fee to restore its blue checkmark on Twitter, making it one of the biggest figures in pop culture to avoid Elon Musk’s payment plan.
The seven-member boyband lost the blue check mark on its personal account on April 20, joining thousands of other celebrities in Musk’s unverified jungle of Twitter. With over 48.3 million followers on Twitter, the band has one of the most followed celebrity accounts on the platform.
This is a different story from the band’s official account and its management agency Hybe, both of which are designated as Twitter Blue subscribers.
On Thursday, Musk tweeted that he was personally funding the Twitter Blue statuses of some celebrities — but didn’t say specifically whose subscriptions he was paying for. It is unclear who is paying for the Twitter Blue subscriptions on Hyebe and BTS’ official accounts.
Representatives for BTS at Hybe did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. Twitter’s press team responded to Insider’s request for comment with a standardized, automated message.
Other K-pop groups have also denied paying Musk $8 for Twitter Blue. Blackpink, a four-member powerhouse girl group under YG Entertainment, and Twice, a girl group under JYP Entertainment, both did not have blue checkmarks on their personal accounts at press time.
The same goes for some of the biggest names in South Korea. Actor Park Bo Gum, a staple at Celine’s high fashion shows, and rapper G-Dragon, the late Karl Lagerfeld’s one-time muse and leader of 2010 mega-boyband BigBang, both don’t have blue checkmarks on their Twitter accounts.
In the West, some prominent musicians appear to be Twitter Blue subscribers. At press time, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus, The Weeknd and Shawn Mendes were all named as Twitter Blue subscribers.
”K-Pop’s biggest power players want Elon Musk to know paying $8 for clout on Twitter is not what the cool kids do”