Twitter’s Blue service, which comes with the verified badge, will cost $8 a month, according to new CEO Elon Musk, as he tries to increase subscriptions, reduce ad reliance and combat spam/scam.
“Twitter’s current lords & peasants’ system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month,” Musk said in a tweet, adding that the price will be adjusted by “country proportionate to purchasing power parity.”
Musk also said that paid users would be given priority in replies and searches, as well as half as many ads. Twitter Blue, the company’s optional $4.99-a-month subscription that unlocks additional features, will be replaced by a more expensive subscription that also verifies users, according to the directive.
Twitter Blue allows you to view ad-free articles from selected publishers, as well as make other changes to the app, such as changing the color of the icon on the home screen.
Musk intended to raise the price of the Twitter Blue subscription from $4.99 to $19.99 per month, making it the only way to maintain verified user status. Users would have 90 days to sign up for the subscription program or their verified status would be revoked. He later tweeted that it would be $8 after backlash.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.