Employees reportedly have until November 7th to make the change or they’ll be fired.
According to Platformer’s Casey Newton and The Verge, with Elon Musk in charge, Twitter plans to raise the price of its Blue subscription plan from $5 to $20 per month and make it mandatory for verified users. If the plan is launched, verified users (celebrities, politicians, journalists, etc.) must sign up for the service within 90 days or lose the blue check mark. Employees working on the project have reportedly been told they will be fired if the changes are not implemented by November 7th.
Twitter launched Blue in the United States late last year for $3 per month, but raised the price to $5 in July. It provides subscribers with benefits such as top articles, custom icons, and, most recently, the ability to edit tweets. The company has not disclosed subscriber numbers, revenue, or other details for Twitter Blue, but according to Investopedia, the vast majority of its revenue (89 percent) comes from advertising.
- Elon Musk reportedly told Twitter that he will not lay off 75% of his employees.
- The Twitter-Elon Musk $44 billion takeover trial is still on schedule and will begin on October 17, according to a US judge.
Musk hinted at the change in a tweet yesterday, saying that “the entire verification process is being revamped right now.” As Newton pointed out, Twitter’s @verified currently follows approximately 428,000 accounts that bear the blue check, representing a small percentage of the site’s 206 million daily active users.
A lot of those folks have tweeted about the change, and many wouldn’t pay $20 to keep their verified status. At the same time, users have pointed out that the new system could increase Twitter’s bot and spam issues that Musk seems to hate. “The point of Twitter verification is that… it’s useful to be able to verify their statements are coming from them,” tweeted cosmologist and writer Katie Mack. “It’s supposed to help combat disinformation, not be a status symbol.”
Musk has been busy in the few days he’s been “chief twit.” He has reportedly ordered company-wide layoffs, according to The New York Times. On Saturday, the SpaceX and Tesla boss reportedly told managers to begin drawing up lists of employees to cut.
