'Power to people': Elon musk announces plan to charge $8 per month for Twitter blue tick

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on November 1 announced his plan to charge verified users $8 per month to keep their blue verified checkmark status on the account. Taking to his official Twitter handle, the new owner of the platform tweeted, "Twitter’s current lords and peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is b***s***! Power to the people! Blue for $8/month." 

Stephen King, Musk tussle over charging plan

Author Stephen King had expressed displeasure on the charging scheme as he wrote that the world's richest man must understand that people need to pay bills. “$20 a month to keep my blue check?” King tweeted to his 6.9 million followers. “They should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”

Elon Musk responded to Stephen King’s reaction related to the verified users' blue checkmark saying that the controversial idea is in the works. Users verified on the platform carrying the blue tick will have reportedly 90 days to sign up to Blue or lose their check mark if they do not subscribe. King educated Musk that “it ain’t the money, it’s the principle of the thing.” Musk then informed his 110 million followers that “the whole verification process is being revamped right now”.

Separately, a poll was launched by a tech investor Jason Calacanis, a Musk associate justifying Twitter users about the multibillionaire's decision post his $44bn takeover."

"A basic subscription on Netflix costs $6.99 or £4.99 a month," he explained. The polls showed that many users weren't willing to pay, but some said that they would. Musk first announced his plan of charging the blue tick accounts after revealing that he had made the offer to acquire Twitter and will “verify all the humans".