“Giving out Olympic medals to highest bidder”: Twitter blue tick pricing

• Elon Musk, entrepreneur and billionaire, has acquired control of Twitter.
• He plans to start charging verified users as much as £17.33 ($20) a month to keep their blue tick status.
• Verified users have been vocal in their opposition to the policy change.

Elon Musk, entrepreneur and billionaire, has acquired control of Twitter, but his contentious plans to change the social media platform have not been met with universal approval.

According to reports, Musk plans to start charging verified Twitter users as much as £17.33 ($20) a month to keep their blue tick status, following his £38 billion ($44 billion) takeover last week.

Verified users have been vocal in their opposition to Twitter’s proposed policy change, with some even threatening to leave the platform if it goes through.

Others are worried about the larger consequences of the change, citing an increase in the likelihood of copycat, scams, and misinformation.
Among those who spoke out strongly against it was legendary horror writer Stephen King “Just $20 a month to keep my blue check? Oh hell no, they need to compensate me. I’ll be leaving like Enron if that gets passed.”

Some of King’s fellow users protested that he could “well afford it,” but King insisted that it was all about the idea, not the money.

Despite this clarification, Musk appeared to bargain with King in a weird turn of events, responding: “The rent and the utility bills must be paid! Twitter will need more than just ads to survive. Is $8 reasonable?”

The CEO of SpaceX continued, saying that this action was “the only way to combat the bots & trolls,” and that he would “explain the rationale in longer form” before it was put into effect. People aren’t convinced as things are right now.

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