Elon Musk reportedly plans to charge $20/month to be verified on Twitter, and people have thoughts

Oct 31 2022, 6:40 pm

Elon Musk is wasting no time.

Just days into his $44 billion Twitter takeover, the self-proclaimed “Chief Twit” already has plans to turn a profit, starting with targeting users who want or already have blue checkmarks.

Sources told The Verge that Twitter is planning to charge $19.99 per month for users to be verified on the social media platform.

According to editor Alex Heath, verified users would have 90 days to subscribe to this plan in order to keep the coveted blue checkmark.

“The whole verification process is being revamped right now,” Musk tweeted on Sunday, with no details about the reported plan.

If $20 sounds like a steep price for a little checkmark beside your name, that’s because it is. Users have never had to pay to be verified on Twitter since the social media site’s inception.

The plan is actually an update of Twitter Blue, the company’s optional $4.99 monthly subscription that launched last year.

It gives users access to “premium features” like the Undo Tweet option, which allows people to fix typos.

Now, the price is apparently set to increase by $15 to include a Twitter verification.

Employees working on the project were given a deadline of November 7 to launch the plan or they will be fired, reported The Verge.

And, of course, there are a lot of opinions about this supposed fee.

Many point out that this changes the purpose of the blue checkmark.

“It’s supposed to help combat disinformation, not be a status symbol,” tweeted one person.

“Verification helps users figure out who is trusted/who they say they are. This is…not going to clean up this app,” tweeted VICE reporter Sophia Smith Galer.

Others think paying for a checkmark is just cringe.

And there are those who think this is a smart move by Musk and Twitter.

Musk confirmed his takeover of Twitter on October 27 after months of back-and-forth with the social media company.

In an alarming outcome, the social media platform saw the use of racial slurs spike in the immediate hours after Musk’s acquisition.

Isabelle DoctoIsabelle Docto

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