Elon Musk has confirmed that Twitter will charge $8 a month for its Blue service, which includes its sought-after verified badge.
The 51-year-old, who is also the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, finalized his £44 billion acquisition of Twitter last Thursday (October 27) after originally proposing to buy the platform in April 2022.
As part of the changes in his billion-dollar takeover of the social media site, the richest man in the world is seeking a new way of allocating blue tick marks, which are normally free for high-profile figures.
In a series of tweets made on Tuesday (November 1), the Tesla founder wrote:
“Twitter’s current lords and peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bulls**t. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.”
Check out Musk’s tweets below:
Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.
Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
You will also get:
– Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam
– Ability to post long video & audio
– Half as many ads— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
The billionaire added that the price of the blue tick will be adjusted by “country proportionate to purchasing power parity”.
For the new monthly fee, Musk also added under his tweets that users will get “priority in replies, mentions, and searches,” as well as the ability to post long videos and audio clips.
Twitter’s former way of verifying users for a blue checkmark included a short online application form that was introduced in 2009 after it faced a lawsuit accusing it of being incapable of preventing fraud.
So, the blue tick was only given to politicians, celebrities, authors, and journalists whose identities were often used to impersonate other people.
When people first heard that badge privileges would cost money, they were suspicious because Musk was said to be planning to charge $20 a month.
Many users on the platform, including author Stephen King, disagreed with the report as he wrote that instead Twitter “should pay me,” to which Musk responded: “We need to pay the bills somehow!”
$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 31, 2022
We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Nu Wexler, former Twitter Head of Global Policy Communications, spoke with the BBC about the risks of introducing a price for blue ticks, as it could make it more difficult to spot disinformation.
“With disinformation as an issue that a lot of platforms are struggling with, verification is one of the ways that journalists, academic researchers, and some users use to filter out disinformation or low-quality information,” Wexler said.
“If you’re offering up blue checks for rent, it makes it harder to sift through disinformation and find high-quality information,” he added.
Since Musk’s takeover of the popular platform, he has moved quickly to put his stamp on the company by firing its previous CEO and other top officials.
While he has plans to overhaul that “blue tick” system, the CEO is also striving to make the social media network less reliant on advertising.
Sarah Personette, the former chief customer officer and ad boss of the platform, tweeted on Tuesday that she resigned last week, which added to advertisers’ apprehension over how the company will transform under Musk.
Also, several stars have also quit the app following its acquisition, such as TV creator Shonda Rhimes, who wrote: “Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye,” and Singer Sara Bareilles who said: “I’m out. See you on other platforms, peeps. Sorry, this one’s just not for me.”
In addition to this, the SpaceX founder has also reportedly installed a team of associates to help him run the business, including his attorney, as well as using his Tesla employees to examine Twitter’s code.
