For the new Twitter chief Elon Musk, there is no taking back of his plan as he officially announces that Tweeple have to pay for retaining their verification badge - 'the blue tick'. After a lot of speculations, he has now revealed the price for the blue tick in the midst of a growing outcry against him over his Twitter revamping policies.
It's been not even a week since he officially acquired Twitter and he is taking the world stage through a debate of imposing a price for what remained a free-of-cost for the global users, provided they have to follow a stipulated process to get their accounts verified. Musk's plan to charge for blue tick came to light earlier this week and initially, he decided to charge $20 (Rs 1600) per month for the verification badge.
However, he earned stern criticism with several users claiming that his plan of levying a charge for verification is first-of-its-kind in a social media ecosystem and that it would set a bad precedent across the world. It is with that criticism that he has now officially announced the price for the blue tick and he said that the users have to pay $8 (Rs 650) a month for retaining the verification badge.
In a series of Tweets, Musk announced the price and he explained the offers to the users for paying for the blue tick. He wrote, "Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month." In another tweet, he said, "You will also get - priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam- Ability to post long video & audio - Half as many ads and paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us."
"This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators. There will be a secondary tag below the name for someone who is a public figure, which is already the case for politicians", Musk added. Responding to the people who are complaining against his plan, the world's richest man said to keep complaining and cited that there is no taking back of this pay-for-blue-tick parameter.
He wrote, "To all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8." He announced the price on Tuesday and his tweet has equally sparked reactions from both sides of the users. Earlier, advocating for levying the charge, Musk cited that it will reduce Twitter's dependency on advertisers. He wrote, "We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers", adding that it is the only way to defeat the bots and trolls.
Musk's plan of revamping has stirred a debate on what would come up from Twitter under his leadership. Elon Musk has officially taken over Twitter last Friday after completing the acquisition process for $44 billion and it must be noted that Musk had expressed his concerns about the verification process, denoting that there would be a change after the takeover.
According to the tech website The Verge, the plan involves quadrupling the price for the verification badge and the verified users would be given 90 days to subscribe to the plan, failing which they would end up losing their blue tick. Besides sparking a debate, Musk's plan to charge for the blue tick has triggered memes that were overflowing on Twitter.
Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.
And paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
To all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022
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