Twitter will begin charging $8 a month in the US for its Twitter Blue service, which will give subscribers the much-coveted “verified” badge. Elon Musk revealed the perks of paying a monthly subscription fee for a ‘blue tick’ as he seeks to boost subscriptions and make the social media network less reliant on ads.
Elon Musk slammed the current system in place to get ‘verified’ on Twitter with a blue tick, comparing it to “lords and peasants”.
"Twitter's current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark is bulls**t. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month," Musk tweeted on Tuesday.
He added that the $8 subscription fee will be “adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity.”
Besides the verification badge, Musk also revealed several other perks of the Twitter Blue service.
Subscribers will get “Priority in replies, mentions and search” – a feature that Musk says will help in defeating spam and bots.
Paying $8 a month will also allow users to post long video and audio. They will also see half the number of ads as compared to people using Twitter for free.
Additionally, subscribers will be able to bypass content paywalls for publishers that agree to work with Twitter, Musk said.
Increased revenue through this system will allow Twitter to reward content creators, he added.
The proposed 'blue tick fee' ticked off many on the social media platform - among them celebrated author Stephen King - but it appears as if Musk is in no mood to relent.
"To all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8," he tweeted shortly after explaining the benefits of the new Twitter Blue service.
A blue check mark next to a person's user name on the social media platform means Twitter has confirmed that the account belongs to the person or company claiming it. Twitter is currently free for most users.
Billionaire Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last week.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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