Highlights
- The plan would upend the platform’s “present lords and peasants system”, Elon Musk mentioned.
- The brand new plan’s pricing can be adjusted by nation “proportionate to buying energy parity”.
New Twitter head Elon Musk mentioned Tuesday the positioning will cost US$8 ($12.50) per 30 days to confirm customers’ accounts, arguing the plan would upend the platform’s “present lords & peasants system” and create a brand new income stream for the corporate.
The announcement comes days after the world’s wealthiest man took sole management of the social media big in a contentious $68 billion deal.
“Energy to the folks! Blue for $8/month,” he tweeted, in reference to the platform’s well-known blue checkmark that alerts a verified, genuine account.
The brand new plan’s pricing can be adjusted by nation “proportionate to buying energy parity,” Mr Musk added within the replies to his unique tweet, and would additionally embrace “precedence” in replying to and looking posts, which he known as “important to defeat spam/rip-off.”
There would even be expanded video skills, fewer adverts, and the likelihood for customers to get a “paywall bypass for publishers keen to work with us,” he mentioned.
“This may even give Twitter a income stream to reward content material creators,” Mr Musk tweeted.
Along with providing verification privileges, the brand new program would take over the prevailing capabilities of Twitter Blue — presently accessible for $7.81 per 30 days — which, for instance, permits customers to edit their tweets.
The SpaceX and Tesla chief floated the $12.50 subscription price thought earlier Tuesday in a tweet reply to creator Stephen King, who was complaining about reviews that the verification service might value $31.27 per 30 days.
“We have to pay the payments by some means!” Mr Musk responded. “Twitter can not rely totally on advertisers. How about US$8?”
The proposal is just one a part of a sequence of sweeping adjustments the 51-year-old entrepreneur has carried out at Twitter, with the complete board, together with CEO Parag Agrawal, let go final week.
The Washington Publish has reported that Mr Musk, whose account bio presently reads “Twitter Grievance Hotline Operator,” plans to fireside some 75 per cent of his new firm’s 7,500 staff.
Mr Musk’s earlier feedback condemning Twitter’s content material moderation insurance policies as heavy-handed — in addition to his frequent posts of boundary-testing memes — has given pause to some advertisers, the corporate’s foremost income.
He tried to calm the nerves by reassuring them that the positioning wouldn’t grow to be a “free-for-all hellscape,” and introduced the formation of a content material moderation council.