FP StaffOct 31, 2022 14:39:42 IST
With Elon Musk now in charge of Twitter, we are bound to see some major changes to the platform. People who are still working with the social media platform have informed reporters that they have been asked by Musk to introduce paid verification on Twitter.
Elon Musk wants the feature to implemented by November 7. Engineers who fail to deliver on this task, will be terminated immediately. Image Credit: Twitter
According to a report by The Verge Musk has ordered Twitter employees to expand the scope of Twitter’s Twitter Blue subscription. Currently, Twitter Blue subscribers pay $5 dollars a month for an exclusive list of features, such as editing tweets, access to new features earlier, and a few other exclusive features. Musk wants the subscription charges to be increased to $20 per month for every Twitter Blue subscriber. For that $20, users will also be getting the highly coveted Blue Tick or verified badge from Twitter.
So basically, instead of verifying whether a user is actually important or a significant user who uses the platform, Musk wants the feature to be accessible to all, who are willing and ready to pay to have a verified profile.
Existing users who already have had their accounts verified will also have to subscribe to the new and higher-priced version of Twitter Blue, if they want to keep their Blue Ticks. Under the current plan, verified users would have 90 days to subscribe or lose their Blue Ticks.
Twitter employees who have been assigned to the project the project were told on Sunday that they need to meet a deadline of November 7th to launch the feature or they will be fired. So there is a very good chance that the feature will indeed be launched next week. Consequently, several engineers and managers associated with the project have been working late into the night and also over the weekend.
Musk has been clear in the months leading up to his acquisition that he wanted to revamp how Twitter verifies accounts and handles bots. “The whole verification process is being revamped right now,” tweeted Musk recently.
Twitter started their Twitter Blue subscription last year to let viewers have an ad-free experience on the platform and read ad-free articles from certain publishers. In the few quarters that Twitter reported earnings as a public company after that debut, advertising remained the vast majority of its revenue. Musk has stated that he plans on growing subscriptions to become half of the company’s overall revenue.
