Are you down to pay a monthly subscription fee to use Twitter as a verified tweeter?? Because that’s what’s apparently coming to the platform!
According to Platformer and The Verge, who first reported this news late on Sunday night, Elon Musk apparently wants to charge Twitter users $20 per month to earn their verification badge — AKA the blue check mark — on the platform.
Of course, this report comes days after Musk officially bought the social media site late last week. So it’s clear he wants to make some changes and go forward with a new direction for the (as of now) tech giant!
Right now, Twitter has a Twitter Blue plan where users can pay $4.99 per month for a host of different add-ons, including the ability to edit tweets and receive early access to new features. But that Twitter Blue plan has nothing to do with verification! In the past, Twitter has deemed the decision to verify (which was a free thing) based on whether “an account of public interest is authentic.” Per the site’s prior owners, Twitter users can receive the blue badge only if the their account is “authentic, notable, and active.”
But that’s all going to change soon? According to this new report, Musk has ordered Twitter engineers to divert the platform to force users to pay money to verify their accounts on the site. That change must be rolled out by November 7 — as in next Monday — or else the engineering team working on the project will be… fired?! Uh, not sure how realistic or supportive of employee health that is, but you know, billionaires be billionaires!
And users will then have 90 days to ante up the cash to subscribe, too, or else they lose their verified status.
Damn!
This report came out just hours after Musk replied to a user on the site earlier on Sunday confirming that “the whole verification process is being revamped.” The Tesla exec wrote at the time:
Well then…
Right now, Twitter makes the majority of its money from brands that advertise on the site. But per The Verge, Musk apparently wants to make user subscription payments like this “at least half of the company’s overall revenue.”
That’s a lofty goal, indeed. But will it work? And will it work within this 7-day engineering window and 90-day rollout time frame?! Would y’all drop $20 every month for a blue check??
Share your take on this verification news down in the comments (below)!
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