How much do you value a blue check-mark? Would you pay $4.99 to remain a verified Twitter user? How about $19.99? That’s the price being weighed in a new plan being hashed out at new platform owner Elon Musk’s request, according to a Sunday night report from tech outlet The Verge. The option to go Twitter Blue already formally exists, with a $4.99 monthly plan in place that allows users to unlock additional features; the revamped, more expensive version must be delivered by next Monday, with the team behind it being told they’ll be fired otherwise, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Verge, which also obtained internal correspondence to that effect. The outlet’s report follows a report by tech newsletter Platformer, published hours earlier, that Twitter was “strongly considering” implementing a forcible pay-to-play verification feature. About an hour after Platformer went to press, Musk tweeted, seemingly in reference to an unrelated subject: “The whole verification process is being revamped right now.”
