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A new controversy has developed in Elon Musk's ownership of Twitter after the accounts of dead celebrities and politicians were given blue check marks.

The Twitter CEO has made a number of changes to the company's verification process following his $44 billion acquisition of the company in October 2022.

Following the takeover, Musk introduced an $8-a-month Twitter Blue subscription service that he claimed would reduce the impact of bots on the website.

Many who had been verified prior to the buyout had "legacy" check marks, although Musk stated these would be removed in the future. On Thursday, April 20, check marks were removed from "legacy" users and several media outlets and personalities bought subscriptions to Twitter Blue.

But several celebrities discovered they had received a Twitter Blue check mark, despite not having subscribed.

The Lord of The Rings actor Sir Ian McKellen stated on Twitter: "Despite the implication, when you click the blue badge that has mysteriously re-appeared beside my name, I am not paying for the 'honour.'"

An unusual development was also uncovered when it was discovered that some celebrities and public figures who had died were also subscribed to Twitter Blue.

Among those who have passed and were found to have Twitter Blue check marks were Brazilian soccer icon Pele, comedian Norm MacDonald and fantasy author Terry Pratchett.

Pratchett's daughter Rhianna Pratchett said in a Saturday, April 22, Twitter post: "Just to be clear @terryandrob has not paid for Twitter Blue. If Mr. Musk is a fan then I suggest a rereading of the books might be in order."

Other dead people with Twitter Blue check marks included chef and TV presenter Anthony Bourdain, Republican Senator John McCain, and actress Kirstie Alley.

In response to Newsweek asking a number of questions including whether family members of dead people were asked about the assignment of the Twitter Blue checkmarks, Twitter sent an email with a "" emoji as an automated response.

Musk's handling of the social media company has been controversial since he took over the platform last year.

The billionaire said in November that Twitter needed to become "by far the most accurate source of information about the world."

Context tabs were introduced for some tweets and would give a deeper explanation of a topic related to the tweet and identify some cases of false information.

But the platform also recently stopped tagging some accounts as "government-funded" media or China or Russia as "state-affiliated" media.

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Elon Musk Is Dishing Out Blue Ticks to Dead People - Newsweek

Serving as CEO of Twitter, SpaceX, and Tesla has Elon Musk stretched pretty thin, and Tesla investors are not happy about it.

A group of investors that hold $1.5 billion in shares in the EV maker sent a letter to the Tesla board last week, accusing it of meager oversight of Musk and his management at Tesla.

The board has allowed the CEO to be overcommitted at a time when the company faces critical challenges, including increased competition, regulatory scrutiny, and a stock slide, the investors wrote in an open letter(Opens in a new window).

Letter signees include 17 groupssuch as Amalgamated Bank, United Church Funds, and SOC Investment Groupthat tout ethically responsible investments. In their letter, the investors fault Teslas board for allowing Musk to run multiple companies, leading to an inability to address the multiple strategic and competitive issues facing Tesla.

Meanwhile, Tesla is increasingly losing market share in the high-performance EV market as legacy automakers launch comparable EV models at similar or lower price points, the letter says. Other challenges cited include various lawsuits and regulatory probes facing Tesla, along with accusations of poor labor practices.

As a result, investors are urging Teslas board to rein Musk in. This could include enacting a policy that limits his "outside commitments or a CEO succession plan.

However, Amalgamated Bank tells(Opens in a new window) CNN it isnt necessarily calling for Musks ouster. Rather, the larger problem is Teslas board failing to maintain independence to oversee Musks decisions at the EV maker.Due to the boards failure to restrict the CEOs outside commitments and ensure he is focused on solving the many challenges the company faces, we have lost confidence in its members, they add.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But it's not the first time Musk has faced accusations of abandoning Tesla. In December, the company's third-largest individual shareholder, KoGuan Leo, also called on(Opens in a new window) Musk to step down from the EV maker to make way for a full-time CEO. Over the past year, value in Tesla's stock has fallen close to 50%.

So far, Musk has publicly said hes looking to find a new CEO to replace him at Twitter, possibly by years end. But hes also indicated he may get even busier. Last week, Musk said he's trying to develop his own AI chatbot, TruthGPT, to counter the rise of OpenAIs ChatGPT and Googles Bard.

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Tesla Investors: Elon Musk Is 'Overcommitted,' Needs to Be Reined In - PCMag

Elon Musk has been known for saying a few shocking things here and there, but no Star Wars fan was ready for the Twitter CEO to share his thoughts on the franchise earlier.

Related:Disney Re-Affirms Denied Star Wars Theory

While Musk is known for his Tesla cars and being an innovator with technology with projects such as SpaceX, the controversial developer has also bought his way into a permanent influence on Twitter as their CEO. While it may have started as a simple joke, Musk now has a lot on his plate and is trying to make the most of it.

His new initiative with Twitter Blue has left some celebrities angry for requiring them to pay a subscription to verify their identity. Still, Musk secretly gave every content creator with a million followers a free subscription. Despite all of this, Musk likes to jump around and send answers in a variety of places, and one of them was in a galaxy far, far away.

Related:Dave Filoni Refuses to Answer 43-Year-Old Star Wars Question

During one of Disneys advertisements for The Bad Batch Season 2s soundtrack, Musk took a second to share his love for the series:

Bad Batch is great

Other fans were shocked that Musk was interested in the animated Star Wars series and shared their surprise in the comments:

Yes, it is great! You forget its animated sometimes really intense action sequences too! Brilliant!

Man has good taste

Related:The Mandalorian; Season 3 Episodes, Ranked

It is! Great end of the season. Same with Mando!

This was not what I expected Elon to ever tweet about ^^

Related:Why Nothing in Star Wars Matters if This Theory is True

This isnt the first time Elon Musk has been caught praising Clone Force 99 as he also shared a Tweet last year of him watching the series with his son. It seems that Filonis latest animated series was worth continuing. Season 2 ended with a shocking twist, setting up a darker Season 3 with The Bad Batch setting up a tragic ending for the series as Lucasfilm confirms Season 3 will be the final season.

While Dee Bradley Bakers voice has been a constant joy for Star Wars fans, Bad Batch Season 3 might be the last time fans can hear him voice the clones, as it seems that Lucasfilm might be done telling their story in animation very soon. Tales of the Jedi might continue and tell stories based on different Jedi in the Star Wars universe at different time periods, such as Luke Skywalker during the reign of the Galactic Empire or explore some Jedi who lived during the Old Republic or the High Republic.

Did you like The Bad Batch Season 2? Let Inside the Magic know what you think!

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'Star Wars' Fans Blindsided By Elon Musk's Shocking Message ... - Inside the Magic

Electric vehicles have been all the rage lately, and investors are looking to cash in on the trend away from internal combustion-powered cars and trucks. Elon Musk has been a huge proponent of EV adoption, and the boom in shares of Tesla (TSLA -1.53%) over the past decade stands as a testament to his appeal as an advocate for the transition in the auto industry.

Musk recently made a simple statement that carried a lot of weight. Indeed, what Musk said was so powerful that it lifted shares of several stocks on Monday morning. Tesla stock actually opened lower, but the gains elsewhere showed that there's more than one way for investors to profit from the ongoing shift toward EVs.

Image source: Getty Images.

The rather innocuous comment that Musk made was a simple plea to potential suppliers for Tesla. He explained in the quarterly conference call following the electric vehicle pioneer's latest financial report that Tesla was working to build out its lithium refinery operations in Corpus Christi and a cathode refinery outside Austin. Yet Musk doesn't really want Tesla concentrating on those areas. As he noted: "We're begging you. We don't want to do it. Can someone please? Like, instead of making a picture-sharing app, please -- try in lithium, mining and refining."

Shares of lithium stocks were the big beneficiaries of Musk's latest comments. Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM 6.13%) had the largest gains Monday morning, climbing 6% in the first half-hour of trading on the day. Albemarle (ALB 5.88%) also showed significant gains, rising nearly 5%.

Stocks elsewhere in the sector posted slightly smaller increases but still did well. Livent (LTHM 6.05%) was up more than 3%, and Piedmont Lithium (PLL 6.62%) also managed to climb nearly 3%. Lithium Americas (LAC 7.25%) also gained ground.

Clearly, for the entire auto industry to move toward electrification, there will need to be a lot more vehicle batteries available. Based on current technology, that will require abundant lithium resources.

Where the potential crimps in the supply chain will occur, however, depends on who you ask. In Musk's view, raw lithium is relatively common worldwide. As a result, the Tesla CEO called on entrepreneurs to focus their efforts on building out refining capacity to put that lithium into a form that his company and fellow EV automakers can use for producing batteries.

Others believe that mining capacity is really the key ingredient for long-term EV success. At this point, major automakers like Ford Motor (F 2.96%) and General Motors (GM 2.21%) are working hard to ramp up battery production in order to ensure they can make enough EVs to compete against Tesla and other earlier-movers in the industry. Even if there were enough refining facilities available to meet that demand, some lithium miners just don't think that the current level of development is adequate to provide battery-grade material to everyone who wants it right now.

The way that lithium mining companies respond to current demand will tell a lot about the future for the industry. For instance, Albemarle has done a great job of pulling lithium out of the ground, but it also wants to convert its own production material into battery-grade lithium. It's also spending money on research and development initiatives with an eye toward looking for advances in lithium battery technology and other areas.

In the end, lithium will be a commodity, and it will be subject to the ups and downs of supply and demand. For those companies that take full advantage of the current opportunity, however, there's more potential beyond simply providing a raw material. It will be interesting to see how Albemarle and others choose to seek to move forward with future investment in the space.

Dan Caplinger has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors and recommends the following options: long January 2025 $25 calls on General Motors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Elon Musk Is Sending These Stocks Higher (and Tesla Isn't One of ... - The Motley Fool

Apr 24, 2023 at 9:09am ET

This article comes to us courtesy ofEVANNEX, which makes and sells aftermarket Tesla accessories. The opinions expressed therein are not necessarily our own atInsideEVs, nor have we been paid byEVANNEXto publish these articles. We find the company's perspective as an aftermarket supplier of Tesla accessories interesting and are happy to share its content free of charge. Enjoy!

Posted onEVANNEX on April 22, 2023,byPeter McGuthrie

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is known for the many companies he manages, also running SpaceX, Neuralink, Twitter and The Boring Company in addition to the energy-auto brand. In a recent post, Musk suggested that Japan should use The Boring Companys services, which could potentially cut down on the chaos in one notable urban center.

Above: A Tesla Model 3 (Image:Casey Murphy/ EVANNEX).

Musk has suggested that Tokyos incredibly busy Shibuya Crossing use the services of his business The Boring Company to help with traffic, asThe Streetrecently reported. After one user on Twitter shared some details about the infamous intersection, Musk shot back with a suggestion for Japanese officials.

"The Shibuya Crossing in Tokio is frequently called 'the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world,' said the user in the post. "A flow measurement survey estimated up to 390,000 pedestrians per day.

Musk quickly pointed to The Boring Company as having a potential solution, suggesting the companys tunnels could reduce pedestrian traffic at the crossing.

"Can I interest you in a tunnel, perhaps? @boringcompany,Muskresponded, as later retweeted by The Boring Company account.

The Shibuya Crossing is regularly compared to the likeness of New York Citys Times Square or Londons Piccadilly Circus, due to its use of massive screens for advertising and its constant stream of pedestrian crowds. To be sure, The Boring Companys ideas for underground tunnel systems led by Teslas vehicles (and perhaps someday autonomously) are designed to minimize traffic, and the company has already begun its first operations.

Above:My first ride in the Boring Tunnel Loop in Las Vegas (Video:CNET/ YouTube).

The Boring Company currently has its first underground tunnel loop in Las Vegas, Nevada though prospective projects in Texas and Florida have also been reported in recent years. The company operates on a design focus surrounding the need to mitigate traffic in downtown centers, noting the versatility of using underground space to do so.

"Tunnels minimize usage of valuable surface land and do not conflict with existing transportation systems," The Boring Company writes on its website. "A large network of tunnels can alleviate congestion in any city; no matter how large a city grows, more levels of tunnels can be added."

Last year, a filing showed that The Boring Company proposed an underground tunnel loop in Austin, Texas, whereMusks Teslaand TBC are based. The company has also been in discussion with authorities in San Antonio, Texas, as well as Fort Lauderdale, Florida. As for whether officials in Tokyo want to consider Musks tunnels for the Shibuya Crossing, well, it seems the ball is now in their court.

Sources:The Street/Twitter/YouTube

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Tesla's Elon Musk Offers Tunnel To Help Japan With Busiest Intersection - InsideEVs