Author Stephen King has likened Elon Musk, the new chief of Twitter, to Tom Sawyer, the protagonist of Mark Twain’s classic “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” two days after his exchange with the billionaire over the subscription fee for the blue tick on Twitter.
“Musk makes me think of Tom Sawyer, who is given the job of whitewashing a fence as punishment. Tom cons his friends into doing the chore for him, and getting them to pay for the privilege,” King tweeted. “That's what Musk wants to do with Twitter. No, no, no.”
The SpaceX and Tesla chief floated the $8 subscription fee idea earlier Tuesday in a tweet reply to Stephen King, who was complaining about media reports that the verification service could cost $20 per month.
“$20 a month to keep my blue check? F**k that, they should pay me,” King tweeted, adding that he would quit the platform if Musk goes ahead with the verification fee. “If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”
"We need to pay the bills somehow!" Musk responded.
"Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?"
Musk, the world’s richest man, later declared an $8 per month fee to verify users' accounts, arguing the plan to charge users for the blue tick would solve the platform's issues with bots and trolls while creating a new revenue stream for the company.
“Twitter’s current lords and peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is b*****it. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month,” Musk, 51, tweeted, adding that the price is adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity.
Elon Musk took sole control of the social media giant in a contentious $44 billion deal. He also fired the company’s four top executives, including Indian-origin CEO Parag Agrawal and legal executive Vijaya Gadde.
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