The Sandman Cancellation Rumors Raise a Big Question of Musk Twitter Era
For Sandman fans, it was a tough day.
First of all: no, The Sandman has not been cancelled by Netflix.
It was a fake headline spread by a Discussing Film Twitter account look-alike, but it managed to stir chaos in the fandom.
The news quickly reached Neil Gaiman himself, who was quick to respond and assure fans that the headline was "not even clickbait" but just fake news. Later, he took a swing at Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, trying to get his attention to the problem that Musk's new rules for verified accounts might pose.
"Just think. Now even parody/scam sites clickbaiting false news will be able to buy blue ticks. What fun it will be," Gaiman tweeted, responding to one of the reactions to The Sandman "cancellation".
He referred to how Musk introduced the monthly $8 fee for Verified accounts, slamming Twitter's previous "lords & peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark".
It looks like now, for accounts to be verified, their owners will only have to pay the fee, with some users (including Gaiman) expressing concerns that it will dramatically increase the number of fake and misleading accounts with a blue checkmark.
How the system will actually work and make sure the fake accounts don't get verified is unclear yet. Gaiman has already criticized Musk's Twitter, and he is not the only one, even though some people hail the Tesla founder's innovations as steps towards free speech.
Still, the issue of fake accounts imitating big news pages on Twitter is not a new problem. Accounts that make slight changes to the names of such pages copy everything, from the reporting style to the profile picture, and then tweet "news" with a "source" link, tricking everyone into believing it without additional fact check.
As for The Sandman, the show remains in limbo even after Netflix acknowledged that its first season was a success among both fans and critics. According to Gaiman, the renewal takes a lot of time due to the need to process viewing data. Fans are growing desperate, so the fake "cancellation announcement" quickly went viral in the fandom before attentive users pointed out that the headline was nothing short of disinformation.
The Sandman season 1 is currently available for streaming on Netflix.