Elon Musk has said Twitter would charge $8 per month to customers who want a blue tick next to their name signifying a verified account.
Musk claimed it was “essential to defeat spam/scam” as part of measures made following a $44 billion buyout of the social networking platform.
A blue check mark next to a username, generally reserved for public persons, is currently free.
According to detractors, the shift may make it more difficult to identify trustworthy sources.
Musk, the world’s richest person, also stated that premium customers would have precedence in responses and searches and half the number of adverts.
“Power to the people! Blue for $8/month,” the billionaire said on Twitter, criticizing the old method of blue tick verification as a “lords and peasants system”.
Twitter’s previous method of validating users for a blue tick involved a brief online application form. It was reserved for people whose identities were likely to be impersonated, such as celebrities, politicians, and journalists.
The mechanism was implemented in 2009, following a lawsuit accusing the corporation of failing to do enough to prevent fake accounts.
But Musk has a significant obstacle in overhauling Twitter’s business, which has not turned a profit in years.
He has stated that he intends to lessen Twitter’s dependency on advertising, despite the fact that some businesses are concerned about advertising on the site under his leadership.
General Motors, a competitor of Musk’s electric vehicle startup Tesla, announced last week that it will halt advertising on the site.
Meanwhile, IPG, one of the world’s largest advertising firms, urged its customers on Monday to cease Twitter advertisements for a week, citing a lack of clarity on Twitter’s efforts to assure “trust and safety” on the platform. Some of the world’s largest corporations send IPG billions of pounds every year to manage their marketing expenditures.
After initial reports suggested that the payment for blue tick rights maybe $20 per month, there was some doubt.
Many users on the network agreed with novelist Stephen King, who said in reaction to allegations of alterations that Twitter “should pay me.”
“We need to pay the bills somehow!” Musk wrote to King.