Elon Musk is responding to Stephen King and his criticism of his intended plan to charge verified users.
Since purchasing the social media platform, the Tesla CEO proposed that the app will charge verified users for their blue checkmarks monthly. Musk initially suggested the charge will reoccur at $20 but has since confirmed that the verified checkmark will cost $8 monthly.
After sharing his thoughts on the report on Monday, the novelist went viral for his criticisms.
“$20 a month to keep my blue check?” King tweeted before Musk confirmed he would be charging verified users on Tuesday. “F–k that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”
The 75-year-old best selling author replied to a fan who claimed he could afford the cost saying, “It ain’t the money, it’s the principle of the thing.”
Musk replied to King’s criticisms and directly wrote under his tweet, “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot entirely rely on advertisers. How about $8?”
“I will explain the rational in longer form before this is implemented. It is the only way to defeat bots & trolls,” he continued.
Elon later solidified the change by announcing the new $8 monthly verification less than 24 hours after proposing a lower recurring price.
“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bulls–t,” the 51-year-old tweeted. “Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.”
Musk also shared that publishers will be able to bypass the paywall if they are “willing to work with us. This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators.”
Critics of Elon’s new plan have claimed that verified accounts are not only valuable for their status notation, but also essential to navigating the modern social media landscape. People have pointed out that verified check marks help everyday users as well as journalists decipher fake news as well as identify public figures.
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