Elon Musk To Let Twitter Users Pay For Blue Verification Check Mark After Spat With Stephen King

Nov 1, 2022, 7:12 PM

A phone screen with the Twitter app displayed

Unsplash | Souvik Banerjee

Twitter's new overlord, Elon Musk, hasn't taken long to make waves since officially acquiring the social platform. He's already let go of the previous CEO, the CFO, and the head of safety. He's also dissolved the company's board of directors and named himself the sole director. It's been controversial so far, with several celebrities already bailing on the platform.

Among the many changes Musk has in the works, users can expect a controversial offer: to pay for that blue verification check mark on their account.

Although use of the platform doesn't have a price tag attached, users already had the option of subscribing to Twitter Blue to unlock other features.

For $5 per month, Twitter Blue opens up a bunch of options for users, including a function to undo typos in tweets, a customizable navigation bar, and ad-free access to some articles with partner sites.

Under Musk, Twitter Blue would see a price hike to $8, but also include verification.

Musk is also promising additional features in Twitter Blue.

So it's not just a price hike for the blue check — Twitter Blue users would also get priority in replies, mentions, and searches, fewer ads, and a paywall bypass for publishers working with Twitter.

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Musk has a couple of aims for allowing users to simply buy verification.

Giphy | Saturday Night Live

For one, he has long bemoaned the presence of bots on the platform, and sees verification as a way for users to gain more trust that they're interacting with actual humans.

The other is, of course, money.

Prior to announcing the $8 Twitter Blue plan, Musk floated the idea of charging those already verified on Twitter $20 per month.

Author Stephen King caught wind of the plan and very publicly balked at the suggestion, saying that Twitter should be paying him.

Musk replied, floating a price of $8, saying "We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely on advertisers."

King, of course, can easily afford $20 a month, but there are important principles at stake.

Giphy | BitPal

Verification is critical to maintaining trust on a platform rife with misinformation and impersonators. Many of those verified include beat reporters with proven track records of providing accurate information, for whom $20 a month is much less affordable.

Moreover, King and the other verified users are a big draw to Twitter — they're creating much of the content that brings people to the platform. So yes, Twitter should be paying the verified accounts, because they're providing value. There are about 400,000 verified users on Twitter as of 2021, according to The Guardian.

To his credit, Musk took King's message to heart.

Elon Musk saying "Those seem like exciting goals, don't they?"

Giphy | Saturday Night Live

He recognized that the money should be flowing towards creators, rather than charging them to use the platform.

In explaining the charge to use Twitter Blue, Musk wrote that "This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators."

The worry now is that allowing anybody to pay for verification will water the whole system down.

If anybody can just fork over $8 a month, what's to stop them from impersonating someone else while doing so? It's a small price for a scammer to pay to profit off of someone else's identity, or for a troll to sow chaos.

What do you think? Is paid verification a good idea for Twitter, or will it ruin the platform? Let us know in the comments!