Kyle Rittenhouse Pays for Twitter Blue Check as Conservatives Cough Up

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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

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Kyle Rittenhouse, the 19-year-old who, at the age of 17, fatally shot two people and injured another during an anti-racism protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, appears to have bought the Twitter "verified" badge.

"You must not have noticed the blue checkmark. I'm elite now!" Rittenhouse, who was acquitted in November 2021 after a jury found him not guilty of murder, wrote on Twitter on Thursday, using a smirky emoji.

Kyle Rittenhouse
Kyle Rittenhouse is seen on set of "Candace" on January 24, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee. The controversial figure has paid $8 for the Twitter blue tick after Elon Musk's acquisition of the social-media platform. Jason Davis/Getty Images

Rittenhouse is a deeply divisive and controversial figure, hailed by conservatives—a month after his acquittal, he received a standing ovation at a conservative conference in Phoenix, Arizona—and condemned by prominent Democrats, liberals and left-wingers, who were outraged at the November 2021 verdict.

During the trial, which ran between November 1 and 19, 2021, Rittenhouse's defense lawyers claimed that the 17-year-old shooter had acted in self-defense in August 2020, saying that protesters had "attacked him in the street like an animal." Rittenhouse was armed with AR-15-style rifle.

Rittenhouse is not the only conservatives' darling who has taken advantage of Twitter's verified badge being put on sale by new owner Elon Musk, 51, to acquire the once-much-coveted blue tick.

The decision to link the app's verified status to a $8 monthly subscription to Twitter's premium service Twitter Blue was one of the first moves the billionaire introduced after his takeover of the company at the end of October.

While Twitter's blue ticks were once only given to those accounts "notable in government, news, entertainment, or another designated category," and were a symbol of authority on the platform, now the verified badge is available to anyone willing to pay the monthly fee set by Musk.

Libs of TikTok, a conservative Twitter account followed by 1.5 million people that regularly mocks liberal values, shared a screenshot of its profile flashing the blue tick with the comment "$8," the monthly price subscribers to Twitter Blue have to pay for the app's verified badge.

"My $8 investment into getting to witness liberal meltdowns has paid off. Best $8 I ever spent!," Libs of TikTok wrote in a following post.

In response to a tweet that asked who, on Twitter, would be willing to pay for a feature that used to be free, Libs of TikTok replied: "A person who wants to upload longer videos, get less ads, and most importantly- INFURIATE THE LIBS which is working perfectly. Best investment."

Several other conservative outlets have paid to receive Twitter's verified status, including Chris Elston, who runs the account Billboard Chris, where he advocates against puberty blockers for transgender and gender-diverse youth and what he calls gender ideology; Christina Buttons, a Tennessee lawmaker who filed a bill to ban gender transition in the southern state; and the account Gay Against Groomers, followed by some 119,000 people on Twitter.

Many on Twitter have pointed out that there is still a way of determining whether an account has paid for the privilege or not. By clicking on the blue tick, users are able to read if the verified badge was assigned to a notable account or a Twitter Blue subscriber.

According to Twitter, all Twitter Blue subscribers deemed as verified users will be prioritized and see their tweets, replies, mentions and search "rocket to the top."

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About the writer

Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property ... Read more