Elon Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter looked a bit shaky early on, but eventually went through with a bit of back and forth. After some terrible jokes about free speech, helping humanity, and letting a sink in – that sounded like he only just discovered memes – the billionaire got to work on implementing changes within the company itself, and also the platform. The most significant change to come may be related to the coveted 'blue tick' verification.
According to a new report by The Verge, Twitter will now charge $20 per month as a premium offering, which will also get you a blue tick for your handle. Currently, the verification process is a bit hit-and-miss. You need to submit proof that you are indeed the person you say you are, along with a few examples of credited work. Of course, the process is different for actual celebrities. However, if the report is to be believed, the new process means anyone can claim a blue tick.
"The directive is to change Twitter Blue, the company’s optional, $4.99 a month subscription that unlocks additional features, into a more expensive subscription that also verifies users, according to people familiar with the matter and internal correspondence seen by The Verge," says the report. "Twitter is currently planning to charge $19.99 for the new Twitter Blue subscription. Under the current plan, verified users would have 90 days to subscribe or lose their blue checkmark."
The report goes on to say that the team tasked with making these changes were given these instructions on Sunday, October 30, and have been given a deadline of November 7. They were told that if the deadline wasn't met, they would all be fired.
While this has not yet been confirmed by Twitter or Musk himself, he did just tweet saying that "The whole verification process is being revamped right now".
Reports have also speculated that Twitter will be undergoing major layoffs, and that Musk intends to let go of 75 percent of Twitter's 7,500 staff, leaving only a staff of roughly 2,000. However, he does seem to be bringing some cryptocurrency related people onboard, resulting in crypto-bros thirsting for verification.
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