Like an ax through the bathroom door, Stephen King has been coming at Elon Musk with full force for some time now. But despite the horror legend’s disdain for how Musk has handled Twitter since acquiring it last year, he’s not going anywhere.
Speaking with Slate, Stephen King defended his stance against Twitter and Elon Musk. “The thing is, if everybody who doesn’t approve of the way things are going, if we all leave, then it’s just like walking off the field. No, I can’t see myself leaving Twitter.” He added, “They don’t get to scare me away and to cheer and say, ‘Well, we got rid of Stephen King from Twitter.’ So, yeah, I’m going to stay. I don’t tweet as much as I used to, and I don’t look at the site as much as I used to.”
Stephen King has notably been critical of Elon Musk’s wishy-washy and elitist checkmark policy, which would push people and businesses to pay for their precious verified status. But King has taken the stand of: gold checkmark, blue checkmark, who gives a shit? Curiously, some time after King openly declared he, like many other celebrities, wouldn’t be paying to remain verified, Elon Musk personally reinstated his checkmark…which King wants you to know he did not get a say in, lest he be deemed a hypocrite.
While Stephen King has praised Elon Musk for his ventures–namely validating the use of electric cars and donating $100 million to Ukraine–he does lean towards finding the platform “very strange” and the billionaire foolish. “$44 billion for what’s essentially a social media plaything is a little bit on the ridiculous side.” King currently has over 7 million followers and nearly 8,000 tweets, a number of which are photos of his dog and promotions for works he admires (the man loves him some Perry Mason) and has a connection to, like the upcoming adaptation of his short “The Boogeyman.”
How do you feel about Stephen King’s stance against Elon Musk and Twitter? Why do you think Musk reinstated King’s verified status? Give us your take in the comments section below!
