Musk is now asking Twitter users to pay

Until now, Twitter had distributed check icons for free, which guaranteed the authenticity of the Twitter profile. First of all, the accounts of celebrities, companies, users with a lot of followers, such as politicians or journalists, were flagged with it. At the moment this will finally end here.

Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk (51) is asking users of the text messaging service to check their user accounts and charge a fee of eight dollars a month. The previous system for giving the blue tick was “nonsense,” the multi-billionaire wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. In the future, subscription to Twitter Blue’s paid offer will be a prerequisite for verifying an account.

Paying customers should enjoy the benefits

Musk said its price should be increased from the current $4.99 to $8 per month. However, the subscription price should be determined by purchasing power for each country. Twitter Blue users will also get priority for replies, mentions and searches, post “long videos and audios” and receive half as many ads as other Twitter users. Musk even considered charging $19.99 a month for the extended Twitter Blue offer.

SpaceX, the boss of electric car maker Tesla and space company, took over Twitter for $44 billion (about €44 billion) last week. He immediately dismissed the top management and later dissolved the board of directors. As the sole manager, the richest person in the world now has full power over the online platform.

Observers had expected Musk to expand its Twitter Blue payment service to generate more revenue for its text messaging service. Until now, user accounts of politicians, celebrities, journalists and organizations, for example, have been verified and marked with a blue tick in the standard offer without asking for money. (AFP/SDA)