Twitter’s new boss Elon Musk has issued his first ultimatum to his employees. The instruction is that they should launch a new paid authentication service. There is a deadline for the launch and the penalty for failure is a sack. According to internal sources, Elon Musk plans to monetize the verification “blue tick” on Twitter. Twitter plans to charge $19.99 a month for the new Twitter Blue verification. However, the price is subject to change. Employees working on the project were told they had to roll out the feature by the Nov. 7 deadline or be fired.
Elon Musk had been clear in the months leading up to the Twitter acquisition. He says he wants to change the way Twitter authenticates accounts and handles bot accounts. He is also actively seeking to increase subscription revenue. On Sunday, he tweeted… “The entire certification process is undergoing a major overhaul.”
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Elon Musk wants the monetization of Twitter verification
However, there has been a lot of uproar regarding the report. Many already verified Twitter users claim that they won’t pay for the verification. Also, some users believe that it defeats the purpose of the verification. If Twitter is charging $20 a month for verification, this suggests that anyone with cash can buy the verification. However, this will not entirely be the case.
Unlike what many think, the verification tick is not only for celebrities. It is also for organizations or individuals. These are people with the tendency to attract several followers. These individuals or organizations usually have fake accounts created by criminals. The verification tick is a means to identify the official account from the parodies. Thus, even if Twitter introduces the fee, not everyone will have it. There will be criteria to meet before users can make payments for verification. However, there are fears that the monetization of verification will compromise the essence of verification.
