This past Sunday evening, Elon Musk, the new CEO of Twitter, has been made to deal with a fairly extreme level of pushback on the web in the wake of a report claiming that his company will be making a move to charge users roughly $20 a month to maintain being verified.
It was first reported by The Verge that the new “directive is to change Twitter Blue, the company’s optional, $4.99 a month subscription that unlocks additional features, into a more expensive subscription that also verifies users,” as explained by various documents and sources accessed by the publication.
While pricing could be subject to change, the current plan is to charge a total of $19.99 for the brand-new Twitter Blue.
The report indicated that those who already possessed a verified account would be given a total of 90 days to officially sign up for the new $19.99 package or their verified status and badge will be removed.
The report also indicated that Musk had told his new employees that they must meet the new deadline to kick off the revised program by the end of the first week of November or they would end up fired.
A poll was carried out on Twitter itself by one of the people expected to advise Musk stated that over 80% of its users claimed they would refuse to pay for Twitter verification, to which Musk answered, “Interesting.”
Interesting
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
Dana Loesch, a radio host, stated, “That’s the demo that gives Twitter any value by their usage. You don’t penalize your power users, you partner with them. That said, I hope this is a troll and either verify everyone (which will help with bots) or no one.”
“Ain’t no one payin for digital indulgences except people who bought into Twitter’s weird treatment of verification for status and not actual verification purposes,” explained Loesch. “I’d let it lapse if true.”
“If it suddenly ended tomorrow, I could somehow adjust to the fall,” explained Dan McLaughlin, a writer for the National Review.
Josh Billinson, a social media manager, stated: “It’s gonna be a very funny day on here when 99% of us lose our checks but then we get to know which of you actually thought it was worth paying $20 a month.”
“I think it’s a terrible idea on so many levels,” exclaimed Kathrine Brodsky. “The whole idea of verification was to ensure the authenticity of users/protect from fakes. Now, it will be harder to tell if some people or organizations opt out of verification.”
“There will be more misinformation on Twitter if @elonmusk requires verified users to pay for their blue badge,” expressed a professor of national security, Max Abrahams. “The main benefit of the badge is it prevents impersonation.”
“People like me will lose it,” expressed Tomris Laffly, a blogger. “I mean, there is absolutely no f***ing way that I will pay for it. If it can be bought, it’s worthless.”
“Beyond upending the stated purpose of verification, this policy would be completely backwards,” explained writer Andrew Roth. “Verified users account for a huge portion of what gives the platform value. If anything, Twitter should be paying them.”
“Well, and charging people for a service that’s been free since inception will drive users away,” concluded attorney Bari A. Williams. “Advertisers/companies won’t want to invest in a platform with declining users and engagement, or to be affiliated with disinformation and impostors.”