Tech Talk: Twitter Plans To Charge $20 For Verification

Elon Musk is considering charging Twitter users almost $240 a year for a blue tick on their account.

The Tesla boss completed his $44 billion takeover of the platform last week and is said to be planning a number of changes, including raising the verification fee from $4.99 a month to $19.999, with users having 90 days to agree the deal or lose the check mark that confirms their account, tech newsletter Platformer reports.

While the world’s richest man hasn’t confirmed the reports, he did offer a hint on his own Twitter account.

He wrote: “The whole verification process is being revamped right now.”

He also flagged a Twitter poll that was launched on Monday (31.10.22) from his associate Jason Calacanis, which asked users how much they would pay for a blue tick per month, with options being $5, $10, $15, or “wouldn’t pay”.

Elon also asked users if he should “bring back Vine”, the video-sharing app seen as a precursor to TikTok but shut down by Twitter in 2016.

YouTuber Mr Beast replied: “If you did that and actually competed with tik tok that’d be hilarious.”

Elon replied: “What could we do to make it better than TikTok?”

Before the sale of Twitter was finalised on 27 October, the 51-year-old business mogul shared his vision for the platform.

He tweeted in a message called ‘Dear Twitter Advertisers’: “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilisation to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.”

Elon added there is a huge danger social media will splinter into far right-wing and far left-wing echo chambers that could divide society, warning: “In the relentless pursuit of clicks, much of traditional media has fuelled and catered to those polarised extremes, as they believe that is what brings in the money, but, in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is lost.