The $8 War of the Blue Checks is heating up.
Elon Musk lashed out at Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo in a tweet Saturday after Ruffalo backed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s claim that paying for Twitter does not promote free speech.
Ruffalo joins other celebrities who have balked at forking over the monthly fee for the coveted mark. Musk and Ruffalo have traded barbs before, but this time, AOC was in the middle.
“Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that ‘free speech’ is actually a $8/mo subscription plan,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote Wednesday.
Musk replied to her: “Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8.”
AOC accused Musk of blocking her account the next day.
Ruffalo joined the fray by retweeting AOC, writing, “Elon. Please—for the love of decency—get off Twitter, hand the keys over to someone who does this as an actual job, and get on with running Tesla and SpaceX.”
Ruffalo added: “You are destroying your credibility. It’s just not a good look.”
Musk bit back on Saturday. “Hot take: not everything AOC says is accurate.”
Ruffalo responded. “Maybe so. That’s why having robust filters for dis/misinformation & credible verified users has been a popular feature for people & advertisers alike. We need those safeguards to make sure it’s accurate information, or the app loses credibility, as do you. And people leave.”
Musk has claimed that Twitter could lose hundreds of millions of dollars without changes. The subscription model for blue checks is one part of his plan to reduce overhead. Included in that was a layoff of an estimated 3,700 employees worldwide late last week.