After “Paid Blue Tick,” Elon Musk is planning to make DMs or Direct Messaging on Twitter a paid feature

Nov 2, 2022 - 17:30

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After “Paid Blue Tick,” Elon Musk is planning to make DMs or Direct Messaging on Twitter a paid feature

The firestorm that Elon Musk’s decision to make Twitter Blue Tick for verified accounts had started, had not even begun to slow down when a new rumour about another key feature being placed behind a paywall started to rile people up even more.

Apparently, Elon Musk and Twitter are planning to make DMs a paid feature. Jane Manchun Wong, a security researcher and blogger has revealed in a tweet that soon, Twitter is working on “Paid DMs.”

Twitter is working on “Paid DMs”
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 2, 2022

Wong has a proven track record of reporting about the latest developments in platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, which have turned out to be true. Furthermore, her expertise and experience as a front-end developer and security researcher, have helped her amass a sizeable online following.

Just earlier today, Elon Musk had doubled down on his announcement of making verified account holders with Twitter Blue Tick pay $8 a month for the service, along with a bunch of other features. As was the case with Tesla, Musk has started placing some previously free features behind a paywall.

Musk’s idea to place DMs behind a paywall actually makes sense if we take his vision of making Twitter a bot-free, scam/spam accountless platform. However, it seems that with each and every decision that he is taking, he seems to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

There is no doubt that restricting DMs in a certain context will make Twitter a better and a much safer place. The kind of vile and revolting messages that many women who are active and vocal on social media platforms is truly horrifying.

That’s good,women won’t be harassed by men anymore with the noodle pic
— IBCIG (@ibcig) November 2, 2022

This is great, because people will stop DMing each other on a completely exposed messaging platform with no encryption.
— Melissa Chan (@melissakchan) November 2, 2022

At the same time, seeing a feature that was free and a cornerstone of a particular social media platform, go behind a paywall and being made into a premium feature is not just saddening, but alarming as well.