Elon Musk considers charging Twitter users $20 per month for verified accounts

Elon Musk has decided to charge Twitter users $20 (£17.30) a month or $240 a year for a blue tick on their account, as the world’s richest person prepares an overhaul of the social media platform.

Users who are currently verified by Twitter with the blue check-mark badge for no charge will have 90 days to subscribe to the new $20/month Twitter Blue plan or have their verification revoked, according to the report.

Twitter Blue launched in mid-2021, offering various subscriber-only perks including the most recent addition of allowing users to edit tweets within a 30-minute window after posting them.

Musk did not comment directly on the story but tweeted to his more than 110 million followers on Sunday that “the whole verification process is being revamped right now”.

It remains unclear whether Twitter will change rules to make the verification process more strict or lenient.

There are about 400,000 verified users on Twitter, as of 2021, but the programme has long been plagued with problems.

According to the reports, Twitter engineers are given a deadline to revamp the Twitter verification process or they will lose their jobs.

The report highlights that staff working on the new verification have to meet a deadline of November 7.

Musk has made several immediate changes at Twitter, including firing CEO Parag Agrawal and other top execs the day he closed the deal.

The Washington Post also reported that Musk was planning to lay off 25% of Twitter’s 7,500 staff in a first round of job cuts at the San Francisco-based company.