Elon Musk has announced that Twitter Blue will cost $8 going forward after revising his initial proposal of $20 after receiving severe backlash from Twitter’s power users.
The tech billionaire made the announcement with a tweet saying, “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.”
Musk gave more details in the same thread saying that the cost for Twitter Blue would be adjusted according to the “purchasing power parity” in different countries. He added that Blue subscribers would also received the following benefits:
– Priority in replies, mentions & search
– Ability to post long video & audio
– Half as many ads
The results of his announcement has ranged from delight to outrage to concerns about the new direction towards what they perceive as monetisation.
Conservative activist Tom Fitton replied to Musk’s announcement saying that he was okay with it as long as people weren’t “locked out/suspended” for “political reasons”. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fitton was responsible for amplifying conspiracy theories about White House epidemiologist Anthony Fauci.
Iranian-Canadian YouTuber Mehdi Sadaghdar called the blue tick “pretty useless to start with” and that he wouldn’t “pay money for it”
Canadian politician Norm Kelly suggested an alternative, saying that existing verified accounts should be grandfathered in as opposed to them also paying for Blue.
Indian actress Kasthuri Shankar also weighed in on the issue, saying, “Way to dilute the blue tick verification. Real important people will leave, and take with them the users you need to justify the platform. When businesses and media buy blue ticks, they will in turn try to monetise their tweets. Twitter will become a bill board.”
Despite all the comments, Musk has remained firm on the $8 cost for Blue and subsequent verification, writing on Twitter, “To all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8.”
Since Musk took over Twitter on October 27, he has already made some sweeping changes. Immediately after taking over, he fired CEO Parag Agarwal, CFO Ned Segal, General Council Sean Edgett and Head of Policy, Legal and Trust Vijaya Gadde.
