Twitter plans to charge $20 per month for verification

Twitter has plans to start charging users $19.99 a month for verification. According to The Verge, employees were given the first deadline by Elon Musk: Meet his timeline for starting paid verification on the platform, or quit immediately. Musk announced the plan on Twitter, after one user said that they were denied a prestigious blue check mark, despite having a significant following. While official details of the new verification process are still not clear, The Verge reports the company will soon start charging users for blue checks. 

The blue check mark, according to the report, will be limited to Twitter Blue members — a subscription service from Twitter that brings additional features such as editing and undoing tweets. The company is also said to be planning a hike in its Blue membership fee of $19.99 (about Rs 1600). Verified users would have 90 days to sign up on the existing plan in order to retain their blue badge, according to a report.

The report also noted Twitter engineers were given a deadline to overhaul the verification process on Twitter, otherwise, they would lose their jobs. The report highlights that employees working on the new verification must meet the Nov. 7 deadline. 

Twitter Blue membership became widely available more than a year ago, and it is been used to allow articles from certain publishers to be read without ads, as well as other changes to the app, like changing the color of an apps homescreen icons. Musk wants the subscriptions to grow so that they make up half the company’s overall revenue. Musk has said recently the platform may be expanding, and may even do away with the platforms 280-character limit. He also confirmed that the company he is leading is looking at expanding video so users can post longer videos. 

Meanwhile, another report noted Musk plans to reduce Twitters staffing levels in the coming days, though exact details remained unclear. It was previously reported that the Tesla CEO could cut 75 percent of Twitters workforce in order to cut operating costs.   

However, this was later denied.