‘A slight cost for…’: Elon Musk hints at a Twitter fee

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday dropped a major hint of what Twitter will be like under him as he revealed his plans of making Twitter something like a paywall social media platform.

Musk clarified that for “casual users”, Twitter will always be free, but a slight cost may be imposed on commercial and government users.

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In a tweet Elon said, “Ultimately, the downfall of the Freemasons was giving away their stonecutting services for nothing.”

Twitter will not be absolutely new to the idea of fee-based subscription and Twitter Blue is a similar concept, which gives Twitter’s most loyal customers exclusive access to premium features and app customisation for a small monthly subscription fee.

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Twitter Blue is available on Twitter for iOS, Android and the web in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

While Twitter Blue offers exclusive features to its paying customers, what the Tesla CEO hints at is to make the use of the basic platform fee-based for commercial and government users.

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As he has added a ‘maybe’, it is clear that Musk himself has kept the idea at a state of probability and his tweet is to test the water. 

Following Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, the social media giant’s future is clouded in uncertainty. Some reports have indicated that Elon Musk plans to take Twitter to the public again after three years.

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Meanwhile, the SpaceX owner seems to be wanting to end free Twitter, but on the other, he wants to expand the reach of Twitter beyond the ‘niche’ audience.

“Right now it’s sort of a niche. I want a much bigger percentage of the country to be on it, engaging in dialogue,” Musk told reporters at the annual Met Gala in New York.