Twitter blue badges may cost US$20 per month

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Twitter is reportedly planning to start charging nearly US$20 a month for users to keep their “blue checkmarks” on the platform as part of a premium package that will be rolled out under Elon Musk, who took over the social media company late last week.

A report from The Verge states that the “directive is to change Twitter Blue, the company’s optional, US$4.99 a month subscription that unlocks additional features, into a more expensive subscription that also verifies users.”

The current reported plan is to charge users US$19.99 for the new Twitter Blue. Existing verified accounts will have 90 days to sign up for the new $19.99 package or they will lose their verification badge, the report stated.

“Now that he owns Twitter, Elon Musk has given employees their first ultimatum: Meet his deadline to introduce paid verification on Twitter or pack up and leave. The directive is to change Twitter Blue, the company’s optional, $4.99 a month subscription that unlocks additional features, into a more expensive subscription that also verifies users, according to people familiar with the matter and internal correspondence seen by The Verge,” the outlet reported.

“Twitter is currently planning to charge US$19.99 for the new Twitter Blue subscription. Under the current plan, verified users would have 90 days to subscribe or lose their blue checkmark. Employees working on the project were told on Sunday that they need to meet a deadline of November 7th to launch the feature or they will be fired,” the outlet continued.

“The Twitter Blue subscription launched widely almost a year ago as a way to view ad-free articles from some publishers and make other tweaks to the app, such as a different color home screen icon. In the few quarters that Twitter reported earnings as a public company after that debut, advertising remained the vast majority of its revenue. Musk is keen on growing subscriptions to become half of the company’s overall revenue,” the report added.

Musk tweeted on Sunday evening, “The whole verification process is being revamped right now.”

Musk has been very busy following his acquisition of social media giant Twitter. Last week, the Tesla CEO spoke about his plan regarding accounts that have been permanently banned on Twitter.

“Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” the CEO said in a tweet.

“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence. There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society,” he said.

“That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences,” he added.

In addition, Musk changed his Twitter bio to read “Chief Twit.” Later, he tweeted, “Meeting a lot of cool people at Twitter today.”

Musk faced a 5 p.m. deadline on Friday to complete the deal, or litigation to force him to proceed with it would have relaunched in Delaware.

He plans to cut the workforce by “nearly 75 percent of Twitter’s 7,500 workers, whittling the company down to a skeleton staff of just over 2,000, the Washington Post reported.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who is leading her Democratic opponent, has made a pitch to Elon Musk after the billionaire entrepreneur took over control of Twitter this week.

Lake, who has a roughly 3-point lead over Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, appealed to the SpaceX and Tesla founder to move Twitter’s headquarters to her state.

“Hey @elonmusk — you have an open invitation to move @Twitter HQ to Arizona. DM me and we’ll work it out!” the former Phoenix-area newscaster tweeted on Friday.

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