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Elon Musk aims to deliver 'power to the people' with $8/month Twitter Blue subscription

Checkmarks, decreased ads, and reply priority are among the new benefits coming to Twitter Blue.

Donovan Erskine

November 1, 2022 3:25 PM

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After some speculations and reports, new Twitter CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that account verification will soon become a feature of Twitter Blue, the social media’s subscription service. He also outlined some additional changes coming to the service, which will soon receive a price bump.

In a thread of tweets earlier today, Elon Musk confirmed reports that account verification would soon be locked behind Twitter Blue subscriptions. Musk criticized the current account verification process as a “lords and peasants system.” He went on to exclaim “power to the people” after outlining his new plan. Of course, that power will lie with any Twitter user willing to part with $8 every month, as that’ll be the new price point for Twitter Blue.

In subsequent tweets, Musk explained that the cost of Twitter Blue will vary depending on the user’s country. Additional features coming to Twitter Blue include priority in replies, a 50% cut to ads, and the ability to post videos and audio that exceed the standard limit.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the pending changes to account verification on Twitter. In the thread, Musk states that verified accounts for public figures will have a small tag under their name stating as such, similar to what’s currently used for politicians.

Elon Musk claims that the new Twitter Blue incentives will provide “a revenue stream to reward content creators.” It’s unclear exactly how such a system will work, but we can probably expect details in a tweet thread down the line. It’ll be interesting to see how dynamics on the social media platform change once these new features are implemented. For the latest updates on what’s happening at Twitter, Shacknews has you covered.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_