It seems Twitter's new owner ‘Billionaire’ Elon Musk wants to give the elite class a run for their money! As per the latest reports, the Twitter chief has now announced that the verification blue tick in front of a user's name that authenticates the account will now be available at a price of eight dollars per month.
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.
The new mandate has instantly sparked discussions on social media questioning Musk about the introduction of fees for the usage of the microblogging website.
#bluetick was the top trend on Twitter and Bollywood celebrities couldn't stop themselves to comment on the same. However, it was Kamaal R Khan's tweet that grabbed our attention.
Elon Musk blasted the "current lords and peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark", using an expletive. "Power to the people! Blue for USD 8 per month," and added that the price is adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity.
To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies https://t.co/k4guTsXOIu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 29, 2022
The new announcement is likely to disrupt the Twitter ecosystem, in fact, the entire social media community.
Reacting to the new mandate, the self-proclaimed critic and actor Kamaal R Khan, who is also known as KRK on Twitter, wrote, "Dear @elonmusk I don't have time to pay monthly charges, So I will pay for 5 years in advance. Pls send me the link to pay."
KRK later added, "Thanks to #ElonMusk for charging fees. Now all these lukkha journalists will run away from Twitter, who are having few hundred followers with blue tick.Hey @elonmusk what is the charge for reactivation of a suspended account? My many friends are ready to pay even $1000." [sic]
Dear @elonmusk pls introduce lifetime membership charges also. Many of us would love to pay for lifetime.
— KRK (@kamaalrkhan) November 2, 2022
Meanwhile, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri took to his Twitter handle and wrote, "If anyone wants to win next elections in Delhi, he should promise free #BlueTick to Delhiites. He may win with 100% margin."
The introduction of fees for blue tick users has confused netizens and many have questioned the new announcement made by Elon Musk.
What's in it for you at $8?
Musk shared that there are some extra benifits for the users who pay $8. He explained, "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
Reacting to the same, author Stephen King wrote, "$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I'm gone like Enron." Elon Musk quickly responded by saying, "We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?" [sic]
Musk revealed some extra benefits for the users for $8.
Image Source: Instagram