Senegalese-American singer Akon has denied calling out Twitter owner Elon Musk for slapping prices on the microblogging site’s blue verification badges.

The ‘Oh Africa’ crooner had, in a now-deleted tweet, accused Elon Musk of “forcing” people to pay the Twitter verification fee that was created to protect accounts from fake ones, insisting that he wouldn’t pay for the new Twitter blue subscription.

“Back in the day, Twitter was begging musicians to stay on because they don’t have traffic. They came up with a verification process to protect accounts from take ones, now @elonmusk is taking that away and forcing us to pay. FYI, I’m not paying shit for something we helped build, "a tweet from the singer’s verified account read on April 1, 2023.

However, in a new tweet posted on Tuesday [today], Akon denied making the remarks, claiming that his account was hacked.

He wrote, “My account was just hacked." This tweet didn’t come from me. Whoever hacked my account, please keep your personal opinions away from my profile respectfully.

Recall that in November 2022, Twitter announced plans to charge $19.99 for the new Twitter Blue subscription.

The blue subscription is one of the company’s most controversial projects since Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter on April 14, 2022.