Elon wasted no time in making drastic changes as he took over Twitter. The billionaire’s latest order is to change Twitter Blue, an optional subscription service that charges $4.99 a month for some exclusive features, into a $19.99 subscription that’ll take users’ blue checkmarks away unless they don’t subscribe.Â
This new Twitter Blue subscription is meant to be more exclusive as well as introduce paid verification on the platform as The Verge reports. Verified users would have 90 days after the plan goes live to subscribe or lose their verification checkmarks.
The only bit of saving grace, according to Casey Newton, is the fact that verified users will only have to pay the old $4.99 subscription to retain their status. As for employees working on the project, Musk’s order is to complete the project by November 7 or be fired.Â
Musk has always had a problem with the number of bot and fake accounts as well as account verification on the platform, something that later became a major hindrance in the $44 billion deal to buy the microblogging platform.
Since he took the reins last Thursday, major changes have already been afoot at the company, including the top brass getting fired with more layoffs planned with help of Tesla engineers that Musk brought along as advisors. The layoffs are expected to begin in a few days, with managers already coming up with lists of people to be fired.
He’s also targeting Twitter’s content moderation policies in order to promote free speech on the platform. In a tweet on Saturday, Musk made it clear that there will be a new content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints and that no major content decisions or account reinstatement will happen before the council comes into being.
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