Elon Musk's Twitter 'planning to charge £200-a-year fee' to keep blue tick
Famous Twitter users might soon have to pay for the luxury of a blue tick as Elon Musk is turning his attention to the social media site's verification process.
The SpaceX founder officially became the boss of Twitter last week, when he completed a billion-dollar deal and entered Twitter HQ with a sink, announcing 'let that sink in!'
After getting that dad joke out of the way, Musk began announcing upcoming changes to the social media platform, including a new 'content moderation council' which will be in charge of 'content decisions [and] account reinstatements'.
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On Sunday (30 October), Musk shared a tweet announcing Twitter's 'whole verification process is being revamped right now'.
Currently, people on Twitter who are 'authentic, notable, and active' are eligible for a blue tick, and can receive the stamp of approval by filling out an application form.
The process is different to that of Twitter Blue, which is currently an optional monthly subscription which costs $4.99 (£4.34) and gives users access to additional features, a different colour home screen icon and a way to view ad-free articles from some publishers.
However, following Musk's takeover, a report now suggests Musk has plans to change the monthly subscription feature into a pricier package - and verified users will have to subscribe to keep their blue ticks.
It's based on reports from people familiar with the matter and details from internal correspondence, and claims Twitter is currently planning to charge $19.99 (£17.34) for the new subscription.
If the rollout of the new subscription goes ahead as planned, Twitter users who are currently verified would have 90 days to subscribe to Twitter Blue and fork out more than £200 per year to pay for it, or risk losing their blue checkmark.
That means celebrities, journalists and other famous faces could all be at risk if they fail to sign up, with Piers Morgan, President Joe Biden and Kim Kardashian just a few of those who could end up like the rest of us average, unverified users if they don't cough up the cash.
Musk is said to already have employees working on the project, and it sounds like he wants to get things up and running pretty quickly as they were reportedly told on Sunday that they would need to meet a deadline of 7 November to launch the feature.
If they miss the deadline, they've allegedly been told they will be fired.
Musk's takeover of Twitter has been met with mixed responses from users, with some welcoming him with open arms while others have criticised the changes.
LADbible Group has contacted Twitter for a comment.
Emily Brown