The richest man in the world Elon Musk recently acquired the microblogging platform Twitter Inc for $44 billion dollars and ever since the ownership has changed, there has been a lot happening at Twitter. This includes Elon Musk walking into the headquarters with a sink in his hand to firing key staff members and the board of directors. Now, Elon Musk has come up with something that will affect Twitter users directly.
Twitter Blue Tick will now be a paid thing?
In his latest Tweet, Musk announced that Twitter’s verification system is now changing. Instead of providing the Twitter ‘blue tick’ to users who have an active and notable account, the tick will now be available to those who are Twitter Blue subscribers for a price of 8 dollars per month. Elon Musk called the current system of blue-tick the ‘lords and peasants system’ and he believes it is bullshit.
However, it is not as if you will be paying 8 dollars for just a blue tick against your name. The Blue members will get many more benefits. The benefits include half the ads, priority in tweet replies, mentions and searches, and more. The verified users will be able to post long videos and audio via their accounts. Twitter Blue will come with a paywall bypass feature that will work with publishers that collaborate with Twitter. All this is done to attract more people to buy this Twitter Blue subscription.
There will be a secondary tag for public figures below their name and this will be their secondary badge. This seems like an addition meant for notable blue tick users.
Although it is not clear as to how this priority in replies, mentions, and searches will work, Twiterratis are disappointed with the idea that the tweets and profiles of those who will be paid members will take preference over those without a blue tick.
Prices of the Twitter Blue Tick
The Prices for Twitter Blue will vary across regions. Elon Musk has suggested that the price should be adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity. This means the membership charges in India might be less than 8 dollars.
Ever since Musk made this announcement, there has been a lot of backlash against this decision, but he has made the new mandatory verification fee a more concrete decision in subsequent tweets. He has changed his Twitter Bio to ‘Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator’.
What was the earlier verification system of Twitter?
Earlier Twitter’s verification system gave blue tick marks to notable users via its own criteria. Users were able to apply for the verified badge across multiple categories for both individuals and organizations. The process was totally free as the users who applied for the badge and were considered eligible were not charged. Also, one could reapply once every 30 days.
