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Musk to charge blue-checkers $20 monthly fee in Twitter revamp; he’s wasting no time, reports say

October 31, 2022 | | Print Article

Since Elon Musk took the reins as “Chief Twit” of Twitter, speculation has only increased around his plans to rework the social media platform and, as reports circulated that fees for premium services could increase to $20 a month, the billionaire offered some passing remarks on a verification “revamp.”

With barely any time to settle in, the CEO’s control of the platform was widely reported as having changed the feel of Twitter though Musk himself said existing content policies had remained in place.

To that end, efforts were underway behind the scenes to improve user experience and, as one individual lamented a repeated denial to obtain checkmark verification, he was assured the problem was being addressed.

“The whole verification process is being revamped right now,” Musk wrote Sunday, responding to a photographer who has nearly 140,000 followers on the platform.

It is possible that the “revamp” will come with a considerable charge as The Verge reported, “The directive is to change Twitter Blue…into a more expensive subscription that also verifies users, according to people familiar with the matter and internal correspondence…Twitter is currently planning to charge $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,” the outlet went on. “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.

Currently costing $4.99 per month, Twitter Blue launched last summer and allows subscribers features like the option to edit tweets. In their current FAQ section, Twitter assured, “Free Twitter isn’t going away. Twitter Blue simply offers an opt-in layer of customization for your Twitter experience.”

Meanwhile, responding to a poll asking “How much would you pay to be verified & get a blue check mark on Twitter?” that had received more than 600,000 votes by Monday morning, Musk wrote, “Interesting.”

The results showed about six percent of respondents willing to pay $15 per month, less than three percent willing to pay $10 per month, around 12 percent alright with $5 per month and the vast majority at nearly 80 percent saying they wouldn’t pay a monthly fee.

The businessman has a record of utilizing user feedback to improve the experience on the platform as the previously mentioned edit feature had not been added until Musk had asked his more than 100 million followers if they wanted one. Around 70 percent had said “yes.”

Musk’s latest poll sought opinions on whether users would be interested in Twitter bringing back the six-second video service Vine that the company had acquired in 2012 before discontinuing it in 2016.

“Bring back Vine?” garnered more than 2 million responses and roughly 70 percent of those voted affirmatively to bring the service back. The billionaire followed up the poll with a question asking, “What could we do to make it better than TikTok?”

On the lighter side of his interactions, one user joked about potential new charges for verifications and wrote, “SOURCES: The new twitter blue verification will have 69 tiers, with the top tier giving you a crown icon and the power to ban any user. It will cost $420,000,000. Elon Musk told Twitter employees if they don’t finish it by Monday, he will blast Nickelback in the office.”

In response, Musk quipped, “Oh no, all our diabolical plans have been revealed!!”

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Kevin Haggerty
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