Musk wants Twitter to charge users $20 per month for verification

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and now Twitter, has told Twitter employees that they must lock verified badges behind a paywall within a week.

According to The Verge and Platformer, Musk wants Twitter users to subscribe to Twitter Blue to keep their blue checkmarks. Currently, the $4.99-per-month service provides Twitter users with additional features. Soon, it’ll cost $19.99 per month and will verify users. Existing verified users will have 90 days to subscribe or else lose their verification.

Musk reportedly told employees on Sunday that they had until 7 November to launch the feature. Otherwise, they will be fired. Musk hasn’t publicly confirmed this order. But, on Sunday, he tweeted: “The whole verification process is being revamped right now.” That suggests the latest reports are true, and verified users will soon need to pay up.

The whole verification process is being revamped right now

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2022

Three days into being “Chief Twit”, Musk has fired Twitter’s CEO and is set to reverse life bans and may lay off 75 per cent of staff. Every day there is a new report about what Twitter’s owner has planned for the social media site. And Musk himself has kept himself in the headlines, with stunts like carrying a sink into Twitter headquarters to let the sale “sink in” for all. 

Pocket-lint will bring you the highlights from the saga – specifically the news that may impact you the most. In this case, paying for a checkmark is a huge change.