Elon Musk wants verified Twitter users to pay up to keep the badge

It was reported that Twitter is strongly considering making verified users pay USD 4.99 (RM23.61) a month to keep their badges. Elon Musk, the billionaire who just officially bought the social media platform, even tweeted that the verification process is “being revamped right now“.

Journalist Casey Newton was the first to report some insider news of “Elon’s war room”. He reported that if the project moved forward, users will have to subscribe to Twitter Blue or lose their badges.

If you aren’t familiar with Twitter Blue, it was introduced last year as “Twitter’s first-ever subscription offering” for a price per month. It gives active subscribers access to premium features on the Twitter account, and is currently only available for users in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US. The price per month is regionally based on the current US price of USD 4.99.

Twitter Blue is, for now, an optional subscription offering for users. But it seems like Musk wants to force verified users to pay for the subscription in order to keep the badges. And while Musk did not confirm anything yet exactly, he did put out a tweet response regarding Twitter verification.

In response to a Twitter user’s question about helping with getting verified on Twitter, Musk responded saying “the whole verification process is being revamped right now”. This might have something to do with what Newton reported, but this could also mean that he would be open to just any user paying for verification—not just approved users.

It’s also reported that Twitter is planning to charge USD 19.99 (RM94.58) for the new Twitter Blue subscription, though that price is subject to change. Employees working on the project were also allegedly told that they needed to meet a deadline of 7 November to launch the feature or they will be fired.

A few days ago, we reported that Elon Musk had fired the Twitter CEO and two other top executives as soon as he finalised his USD 44 billion Twitter deal. The removal of top executives could signify the “hostile takeover” that was expected of Musk. 

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