Elon Musk Teases New $8 Twitter Blue Checkmark Plan

Billionaire Elon Musk really wants users to pay for that blue Twitter verification checkmark, one way or another.

Even though many users feel that the blue verification checkmark is a way to verify which users are legitimate, especially when it comes to celebrity and official accounts, the Tesla CEO wants users to cough up a pretty penny to get that blue checkmark.

On Monday, horror master Stephen King balked at paying $20 to keep his blue checkmark. The hefty price point of $240 per year garnered plenty of criticism, prompting Musk to consider lowing the price to $96 per year, with a few extra perks.

On Tuesday afternoon, it looks like the SpaceX CEO decided to respond to criticism of the current model after Stephen King's tweet started trending.

"Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullsh*t," Musk tweeted. "Power to the people! Blue for $8/month."

"Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity," he added before providing users with a list of "perks" that they will get if they purchase that blue checkmark. These additional benefits include priority in replies, mentions, and search results, which he describes as "essential" to defeating spam and scam accounts.

Users with a blue checkmark will also see half as many ads as people who don't pay the $8 per month fee. Pay-to-play users will also have the ability to post longer video clips and audio files, although the length of those files has yet to be disclosed.

In another comment, Musk said that there will be a "paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us," although he failed to disclose the details of that arrangement. He defended his Twitter checkmark subscription model by saying that the $8 per month fee will "give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators."

In a follow-up to his initial tweet, Musk then shared a photo of him posing at Heidi Klum’s 2022 Halloween party in his costume, with the words, “ALL FOR $8 YESSSS!!!” written over the photo. His mother, Maye Musk, who attended the party with him, appears to be cropped out of the shot.

Although the new program has officially been announced, many have already expressed criticism of Elon Musk and his plan to create a new revenue stream for Twitter by monetizing its blue verification checkmark.

Comedian Steve Hofstetter was one of the first to criticize the plan by explaining why the blue verification checkmark was implemented in the first place. "Wow. You really don’t understand social media," he commented on Musk's initial tweet. "The point of a blue check is to verify that the person is who they say they are and that they are a legitimate authority in their field. Not that they happen to have $96 a year."

The outlet TechCrunch also agreed that monetizing the blue checkmark only raised the possibility of misinformation being spread on the platform. “Musk and his buddies view this plan as a way to get people to actually give Twitter money,” TechCrunch reported. “But by monetizing a symbol that currently has value, they will ultimately remove all of that existing value.”

Despite Musk's tweet, there has been no other information disclosed about when Twitter plans to start charging for that blue verification checkmark or what other benefits users will actually receive.