Elon Musk has said Twitter will charge $8 (£7) monthly to Twitter users who want a blue tick by their name indicating a verified account.
As part of changes after a $44bn (£38bn) takeover of the social media site, Mr. Musk said it was “essential to defeat spam/scam”.
A blue tick symbol next to a username – normally for high-profile figures – is currently free.
The move could make it harder to identify reliable sources, say critics.
Mr. Musk, the world’s richest person, added that paid users would have priority in replies and searches, and half as many advertisements.
“Power to the people! Blue for $8/month,” the billionaire said on Twitter, criticizing the old method of blue tick verification as a “lords and peasants system”.
But Nu Wexler, former Twitter Head of Global Policy Communications, warned that introducing a fee for blue ticks could make it harder to spot disinformation.
Twitter’s former method of verifying users for a blue tick included a short online application form and was reserved for those whose identities were targets for impersonation, such as celebrities, politicians, and journalists.
The company introduced the system in 2009 after it faced a lawsuit accusing it of not doing enough to prevent imposter accounts. According to reports in the Guardian newspaper, there were about 400,000 verified users on Twitter as of 2021.
But Mr. Musk is still facing a hefty challenge as he works to overhaul Twitter’s business, which has not posted a profit in years.
He has said he wants to reduce Twitter’s reliance on advertising, even as some companies have grown concerned about advertising on the site under his leadership.
General Motors – a rival of Mr. Musk’s electric car company Tesla – said last week it was suspending advertising on the site.
Source- BBC
