Elon Musk may start charging $20 per month for verified Twitter accounts

Gulf Today Report

Billionaire and Tesla chief executive Elon Musk is considering charging Twitter users $20 a month for a blue tick on their account, according to sources close to the deal.

A venture capitalist working with Musk tweeted out a survey asking how much users would be willing to pay the blue check mark that Twitter has historically used to verify top accounts so other users know it's really them.

Musk, whose account is verified, replied, "Interesting.”
According to people familiar with the matter and according to internal communications, the directive is to change Twitter Blue, an optional $4.99 per month subscription to unlock additional features, to a subscription with a higher fee.

Currently, $19.99 is planned for a new Twitter Blue subscription, and under the current plan, verified users will have 90 days to sign up or lose their blue verification badge.

On Sunday, employees working on the project were warned to meet the Nov.7 deadline to launch the feature, and if the employees involved did not meet the deadline, they would be fired by Musk.

Musk had been clear in the months before the acquisition that he wanted to revamp the way Twitter accounts were verified and dealt with bots, tweeting on Sunday: "The whole verification process is now being renewed.”

Elon Musk announced on Twitter on Sunday, just days after taking charge of one of the world's most influential social media platforms, that Twitter would adjust its user verification process.