Ever since Elon Musk officially bought Twitter last week, rumors have swirled about how he'd change the platform. Most recently, unconfirmed chatter suggested that the world's richest man might charge verified users $20 a month to keep their blue check mark.
However, this was quickly dispelled when Elon tweeted his plan to the public: "Blue for $8 [per] month" to even out Twitter's "current lords and peasants system" — which is his way of saying that verification is a status symbol he'd like to turn into a service instead.
Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.
Under this new system, he dreams of verification coming with perks like priority in replies, mentions, and search, as well as fewer ads and access to articles without paywalls. (Whether any of this will happen is yet to be seen.)
And paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us
After hearing of this, many people had a lot of questions and opinions. NBC News reporter Kat Tenbarge wondered how verification fees might encourage impersonators to make themselves look legit:
How will Twitter verification ensure that people aren't just impersonators or parody accounts? Let's say a bunch of creators lose their checks because they don't want to pay. What's stopping people from impersonating them, paying for verification, and tweeting fake info?
Author Stephen King said he'd rather leave Twitter than pay them:
$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.
And others simply balked at the prospect of payment:
Twitter: “We charging $20 a month for verification” Everybody:
So, knowing all this, I'm curious...
Let me know all your thoughts about this in the comments as well!
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