In his first big move since acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk wants the social media platform to begin to charge users for verification.
According to reports, Musk has directed a team to introduce this subscription model before November 7th or risk losing their jobs.
This change is set for Twitter Blue, the company’s optional, $4.99 a month subscription that unlocks additional features, including the ability to edit tweets and test out new features. Now, Elon also wants to be able to verify Twitter Blue users for a price.
The plan is to charge $19.99 for the new Twitter Blue subscription and users already verified have 90 days to subscribe to the new subscription or lose their blue ticks.
In the months leading up to the acquisition, Musk has made clear his plans to revamp how Twitter verifies accounts and handles bots. On Sunday, he tweeted: “The whole verification process is being revamped right now.”
Twitter currently makes most of its money from advertising, but these changes and more are part of Musk’s plans to make subscriptions at least “half of the company’s overall revenue.”
