Elon Musk says Twitter will charge $8 a month for blue check – He plans to reward content creators

Tesla, Spacex and Twitter boss Elon Musk has decided to charge users of the social media platform $8 a month for having a blue check mark. “This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators“, Musk explained, adding that “this is the only way to defeat bots and trolls.” However, many Twitter users are unhappy with the announced fee.

Twitter to charge $8 a month for account verification

Tesla CEO and Twitter boss Elon Musk announced Tuesday on Twitter that he plans to charge Twitter users $8 a month for a blue verification checkmark that is currently free. His announcement came after several days of discussion on Twitter following his acquisition of the social media platform.

In a subsequent tweet, he explained that the award will be “adjusted by country in proportion to purchasing power parity“.

Musk also said that for $8 a month, users will get “priority in replies, mentions and searches, which is critical to defeating spam and scams, the ability to post long videos and audio files, half as many ads” and a “paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us.”

The new Twitter chief added:

This will also provide Twitter with a revenue stream to reward content creators.

Some people said they welcomed the idea of Twitter paying content creators. One user wrote, “Payments to creators are huge for incentivizing content creation. I love this idea“. Musk responded, “It’s absolutely essential. Creators need to make a living!“

Before settling on the $8 per month rate, Musk considered charging $20 per month. However, many Twitter users reacted negatively to the idea. Famous fiction author Stephen King said he would leave the platform if the fee was instituted. Musk responded by explaining that Twitter cannot depend entirely on advertisers and must pay the bills somehow. He also pointed out that “it’s the only way to defeat bots and trolls“.

We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022

Microstrategy’s pro-bitcoin CEO Michael Saylor commented on Musk’s idea of charging $8 a month, tweeting, “The bots aren’t going to like this“. Tesla’s CEO responded:

Yes, this will destroy the bots. If a paid Blue account engages in spam/fraud, that account will be suspended. Essentially, this increases the cost of crime on Twitter by several orders of magnitude.

The current Twitter verification process is free, but the account must be “genuine, notable and active” to receive a blue check mark, according to the company’s website as of Nov. 1.

Still, some people aren’t happy with the $8-a-month cost. “8 dollars for something that isn’t even ad-free is too funny“, wrote one user. Another explained that his number one rule on the Internet that has “never been successfully broken is to charge for something that was previously free.“A third user wrote:”Soon it’s going to be cool not to have the tick“.

Philip Lewis, Huffpost homepage editor, said:

I think this is a fundamental misunderstanding of how checking is supposed to work. The blue check has been seen as a status symbol for a while, when it’s just supposed to tell you whether a page is genuine or not.