With Elon Musk in cost, Twitter is planning to spice up the worth of its Blue subscription plan from $5 to $20 monthly and make it obligatory for verified customers, in accordance with Platformer‘s Casey Newton and The Verge. If it launches the plan, verified customers (celebrities, politicians, journalists, and many others.) should signal as much as the service inside 90 days or they will lose the blue test mark. And staff engaged on the mission have reportedly been informed they will be fired until they implement the modifications by November seventh.

Twitter launched Blue late final yr within the US for $3 monthly, however boosted the worth in July to $5. It affords subscribers options like high articles, customized icons and, most just lately, the power to edit tweets. The firm hasn’t revealed subscriber numbers, income or different particulars for Twitter Blue, however the overwhelming majority of its income (89 %) comes from promoting, in accordance with Investopedia.

Musk telegraphed the transfer yesterday, tweeting that “the whole verification process is being revamped right now.” As Newton identified, Twitter’s @verified presently follows round 428,000 accounts that carry the blue test, a fraction of the location’s 206 million every day actives customers. 

Lots of these people have tweeted in regards to the change, and plenty of would not pay $20 to maintain their verified standing. At the identical time, customers have identified that the brand new system might enhance Twitter’s bot and spam points that Musk appears to hate. “The point of Twitter verification is that… it’s useful to be able to verify their statements are coming from them,” tweeted cosmologist and author Katie Mack. “It’s supposed to help combat disinformation, not be a status symbol.” 

Musk has been busy within the few days he is been “chief twit.” He has reportedly ordered company-wide layoffs, in accordance with The New York Times. On Saturday, the SpaceX and Tesla boss reportedly informed managers to start drawing up lists of staff to chop.