‘Current system is bulls***’: Elon Musk lays out plans for $8 per month Twitter fee

Elon Musk has revealed more details about his controversial plan to charge users a monthly fee for their blue checkmarks, saying the current system is “bulls**t”.

Elon Musk has revealed more details about his controversial plan to charge users a monthly fee for their blue checkmarks, saying the current system is “bulls**t”.

The tech billionaire, who took full control of the social media platform last week after finalising his $US44 billion takeover, sparked outrage from prominent users after suggesting they would soon have to start paying up to $US19.99 per month to retain their verification badge.

Under the plan, first reported by tech website The Verge on Sunday, Twitter will raise the price of its optional $US4.99-a-month premium subscription called Twitter Blue and include verification as part of the deal — with existing verified users to be given 90 days to subscribe or lose their checkmarks.

Musk appears to have now settled on a lower amount of $US8.

Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022

“Twitter’s current lords and peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bulls**t,” he wrote on Tuesday.

“Power to the people! Blue for $8/month. Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity.”

Musk said Twitter Blue users would also get “priority in replies, mentions and search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam”, the ability to post longer video and audio, half as many ads and “paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us”.

“This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators,” he said, adding, “Yes, this will destroy the bots. If a paid Blue account engages in spam/scam, that account will be suspended. Essentially, this raises the cost of crime on Twitter by several orders of magnitude.”

Musk first suggested the lower $US8 figure earlier this week after horror novelist Stephen King, who has 6.9 million followers, threatened to quit the platform.

“$20 a month to keep my blue check? F**k that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron,” King wrote.

Musk replied, “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8? I will explain the rationale in longer form before this is implemented. It is the only way to defeat the bots and trolls.”

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Elon Musk is radically overhauling Twitter. Picture: Frederic J. Brown/AFP

Musk has reportedly given his employees an edict to come up with a plan for the new subscription service within days — or get fired.

Twitter, a site with more than 237 million daily active users, has historically struggled to monetise its content despite its significant influence on the public discourse.

The company’s most recent earnings report showed a net loss of $US270 million — a sharp swing from the $US66 million in profit from a year prior.

Twitter also reported $US1.18 billion in revenue, which is down more than 1 per cent year-over-year.

A banker familiar with Twitter’s thinking said charging for verification is the easiest way for the company to quickly make a profit — and argued that for most users who have spent years building their Twitter profile and online brand, shelling out a monthly fee is a fait accompli.

“There is no alternative platform for global social discourse,” the banker told the NY Post. “Are you really going to give it up and start from scratch by not paying $20 a month? You have to go through with it.”

Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022

Since completing the on-again, off-again takeover deal last week, Musk has faced boycott threats from advertisers — Twitter’s main source of revenue — if he lets former President Donald Trump back on the platform.

Mr Trump, for his part, insisted on Friday he is staying on Truth Social, his rival social media platform which launched early this year.

Prior to taking control, Musk tried to calm the nerves of advertisers by reassuring them that the site would not become a “free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences”, and announced the formation of a content moderation council.

Musk said he was buying the company to “have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner“, and that in addition to following laws the platform must be ”warm and welcoming to all”.

“Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise,” he said.

— with NY Post