TWITTER: Elon Musk Faces Resistance From Verified Users Over $20 Monthly Fee

Billionaire businessman, Elon Musk, has come under heavy fire after reports surfaced online alleging that he plans to introduce paid verification on his newly acquired social media platform, Twitter, which would cost users $20 per month.

Twitter has an optional monthly subscription service called Twitter Blue, which unlocks additional features and currently costs $4.99 per month. According to a report from The Verge, however, Musk plans to up the price to $19.99 and give subscribers verification badges.

Users who are already verified would have 90 days to subscribe in order to keep their verification badges while users who want to be verified can just pay for the badge when the service becomes operational.

Some verified Twitter users shared their opinions on the development, many of whom disagree with Musk’s plan.

Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin accused Musk of letting his ego trap him into overpaying for Twitter, adding that he could take the verification badge back.

“Multibillionaire tech bro has let his big mouth and ego trap him into overpaying by 3x to buy a problematic platform in the worst deal of all time, and now he wants to charge $240/year (N192k) to keep a blue tick on verified user profiles. LOL pls take it”, he tweeted.

Verified user @jeffgerstmann tweeted, “It’s funny, because account verification on Twitter was originally meant to be some kind of benefit to all Twitter users, like ‘hey, we’ve vetted the identity of this account and you can be certain that they are who they say they are.’ To keep people from falling for dumb scams.”

Another verified user, @AstroKatie said verification was not a status symbol, but rather a means of combating misinformation by confirming the identities of certain individuals or organozations.

“The point of Twitter verification is that for certain individuals/organizations it’s useful to be able to verify their statements are coming from them. (This is why so many journalists/reporters are verified.) It’s supposed to help combat disinformation, not be a status symbol,” she tweeted.

Another twitter user @_AsiwajuLerry who is not verified but has over 300,000 followers, tweeted, “16K monthly for Twitter verification ke, Elon Musk don dey carry us go where we no know o”.

16,000 is the approximate naira equivalent of the subscription fee.

THE WHISTLER reported on Friday when Musk took full control of Twitter following the completion of his $44 billion deal to acquire the company.

The sealed deal finally brought an end to the long and bumpy journey between Musk and Twitter which started in April 2022 when he first made an offer to buy the company.