Elon Musk is considering making verification a Twitter Blue perk.
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According to Platformer's Casey Newton and The Verge, with Elon Musk in control, Twitter plans to raise the price of its Blue subscription plan from $5 to $20 per month
According to Platformer Casey Newton and The Verge, with Elon Musk in control, Twitter plans to raise the price of its Blue subscription plan from $5 to $20 per month and make it mandatory for verified users. If the plan is launched, verified users (celebrities, politicians, journalists, etc.) must sign up for the service within 90 days or lose the blue check mark. Employees working on the project have reportedly been told they will be fired if the improvements are not implemented by November 7th.
Twitter introduced Blue in the United States late last year for $3 a month but raised the price to $5 in July. It provides subscribers with benefits such as top articles, unique icons, and, most recently, the ability to modify tweets. The firm has not disclosed membership counts, revenue, or other statistics regarding Twitter Blue, but according to Investopedia, the great majority of its revenue (89 percent) comes from advertising.
Musk indicated the change in a tweet yesterday, saying that “the entire verification procedure is being rebuilt right now.” As Newton pointed out, Twitter’s @verified now follows approximately 428,000 accounts that have the blue check, representing a small percentage of the site’s 206 million daily active users.
Many of them have tweeted about the change, and many would not pay $20 to maintain their verified status. At the same time, users have expressed concern that the new approach may exacerbate Twitter’s bot and spam concerns, which Musk appears to despise. “The objective of Twitter verification is… to be able to verify their assertions are coming from them,” cosmologist and writer Katie Mack tweeted.” It’s meant to combat misinformation, not to be a status symbol.”
Musk has been very busy in his short days as “chief twit.” According to The New York Times, he has ordered company-wide layoffs. On Saturday, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO reportedly instructed managers to begin compiling lists of staff to lay off.
