Twitter to charge $8 per month for verification badge - Elon Musk

Twitter's new owner Elon Musk has confirmed the microblogging website will charge $8 per month if anybody wants the "blue tick", which shows an account has been verified as genuine.

The multibillionaire disclosed this in a tweet, late Tuesday, November 01, 2022.

What Elon Musk said: "Twitter's current lords and peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month," Mr Musk tweeted.

He added that the price will vary, depending on the purchasing power of each country the app is available to.

"Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity," Mr Musk said, without telling the method that he used to decide "purchasing power".

Additional benefits: Mr Musk's new plan for the verified icon also includes giving genuine users some superpowers.

"You will also get: Priority in replies, mentions and search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam. Ability to post long video and audio. Half as many ads. And paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us," Mr Musk, who is also the chief executive of Tesla Motors, tweeted.

Elon to pay off Twitter's debts: The reported firings follow news that Musk planned to eliminate nearly 75% of Twitter’s staff in an effort to pay down the company’s debt. Musk later dismissed those reports, telling employees he would not cut such a large portion of the staff.

Road to buying Twitter: The $44billion purchase of the influential social media platform was first announced in late April.

But the following months witnessed disagreements which threatened the sale and take over.

The then-Twitter management filed a lawsuit accusing Musk of trying to go back on the terms of agreement.