Explained: Elon Musk’s ‘pay for Twitter blue tick’ row

The new era of Twitter is here after Elon Musk took control of the social media platform. As the world’s richest man took charge of the company, he began with swift firings — including that of CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and policy chief Vijaya Gadda.

Since then, the man behind SpaceX and Tesla has been working day and night trying to introduce more changes at Twitter, including revisions in the content policy as well as the verification process, which provides a ‘Blue tick’ to verified accounts.

Elon Musk had previously said that he wanted to introduce paid verification on Twitter and The Verge reports that he also gave employees an ultimatum: Meet his deadline to introduce paid verification on Twitter or pack up and leave.

However, his decision to charge users for the prestigious ‘blue tick’ has irked many, including bestselling author Stephen King, who has slammed the billionaire for the move, saying if the new rule gets instituted, he would leave the micro-blogging website. Mind you, King has 6.9 million followers and is known worldwide.

$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 31, 2022

As Musk deals with the backlash over his proposed move, we decode for you what exactly is the Twitter blue tick all about and why there’s such a hue and cry about paying for it.

Musk’s payment for blue ticks

Days after he took over Twitter, Elon Musk said in a tweet on Sunday that he was going to revise its user verification process. “Whole verification process is being revamped right now,” Musk said in his tweet without giving more details.

Also read: Elon Musk completes Twitter takeover. What changes will the billionaire introduce?

Post his tweet, Platformer reported that Musk was thinking of introducing a $4.99 (Rs 412) a month charge for users to retain their ‘blue’ badges. The Verge then reported that Musk and his team was planning to charge users $19.99 (Rs 1.653) a month for the new Twitter Blue subscription.

Furthermore, Twitter accounts that already have the verification, will have to comply with this new mechanism and pay up for the blue tick. The report suggests that verified users will have a total 90 days to move to Twitter Blue or they will end up losing their checkmark.

The report caught the attention of many netizens; some cried foul over the move, while others mocked the decision.

The Elon Musk $20 a month for a blue tick idea is one that is so bad, it has the power to destroy Twitter on its own. One, attaching a monetary value to the blue tick destroys its desirability completely. It's like giving out Olympic gold medals to the highest bidder.

— Nick Tyrone (@NicholasTyrone) October 31, 2022

People having #BlueTick on their twitter profile to #ELONMUSK after he announced $20/month charges