Elon Musk, the newly appointed owner of Twitter, has declared that the procedure for obtaining the coveted “blue tick” will be changed, amid rumors that the company may start charging $20 (£17) per month to be verified.
Days after assuming control of the social media behemoth, Mr. Musk tweeted that the verification process was being updated. A blue tick is currently free and a way of signaling an account is authentic.
On Friday, Mr. Musk completed his $44 billion (£37.9 billion) acquisition. He has since changed his Twitter name to Chief Twit. He frequently voiced concerns about the verification process and the quantity of spam and bot accounts he believed littered the site during the months of legal wrangling prior to the acquisition.
Mr. Musk’s tweet, on Sunday, did not give any more details about what exactly might change. But according to tech website The Verge, which cited internal correspondence, Twitter now wants to charge people $19.99 per month to keep their blue tick verification status. It says the plan involves quadrupling the price for Twitter Blue – the company’s subscription service – and making verification one of its features.
Verified users would be given 90 days to subscribe or face losing their blue tick, it reports. Employees were told of the project on Sunday and have been told they need to launch the scheme by 7 November or risk losing their jobs, it added.
Twitter Blue was launched last summer and gives subscribers access to various premium features including the option to undo a tweet. It is currently optional and costs $4.99 per month.
While there has been no official confirmation of the plan, on Monday Mr. Musk appeared to acknowledge the speculation in a new tweet which said: “On no, all our diabolical plans have been revealed!!”
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