Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has stated that the procedure of obtaining the renowned “blue tick” will be altered, amid speculations that the company may begin charging $20 (£17) per month to be verified.
Days after taking over the social media behemoth, Mr Musk tweeted that the authentication procedure was being revised.
A blue tick is currently free and used to indicate that an account is genuine.
On Friday, Mr Musk completed his $44 billion (£37.9 billion) buyout and renamed himself Chief Twit on Twitter.
Throughout the months of legal battle that led up to the acquisition, the billionaire regularly raised reservations about the verification procedure, as well as the number of spam and bot accounts he believes are on the site.
Mr Musk’s Sunday tweet provided no additional information about what might change.
However, according to The Verge, citing internal correspondence, Twitter now wants to charge customers $19.99 per month to maintain their blue tick verification status.
According to the report, the idea entails quadrupling the price of Twitter Blue, the company’s subscription service, and making verification one of its features.
According to the article, verified users would have 90 days to subscribe or risk losing their blue tick.
Employees were informed of the idea on Sunday and have been told that they must implement the plan by November 7 or risk losing their jobs, according to the report.
Twitter Blue was introduced last summer and provides subscribers with access to a variety of premium services, including the ability to undo a tweet.
It is presently available as an option and costs $4.99 per month.
While there has been no official confirmation of the proposal, Mr Musk appeared to address the rumors in a new tweet on Monday; “On no, all our diabolical plans have been revealed!!”
Separately, Mr Musk has refuted a New York Times allegation that he intends to lay off Twitter employees before the start of next month in order to avoid having to make compensation.
It comes after his buyout last week, which saw the departure of the firm’s top executives, including its CEO, Chairman, and Finance Chief.
The New York Times claimed over the weekend that Mr Musk had authorized massive layoffs across Twitter’s employees.
The layoffs, according to the publication, would take place before November 1, when employees were scheduled to receive grants of company stock as part of their pay packages.
However, in response to a Twitter user who inquired about the report, he stated, “This is false.”
The deal has sparked debate among Twitter users about how the platform will appear under Mr Musk’s leadership.
Some have expressed fear that more permissive free speech standards will allow persons banned for hate speech or disinformation to return to the platform.
Mr Musk stated last week that he does not want the platform to become an echo chamber for hate and divisiveness. “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hell-scape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” he tweeted.
After rejecting the New York Times article on job cuts, Mr Musk tweeted a screenshot of a New York Times headline about him tweeting a link to a “site known to publish false news.”
The New York Times title linked to Mr Musk’s weekend response to a tweet by former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, which he then deleted.
His response included a link to a conspiracy theory regarding an attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
