Elon Musk has sparked a row with novelist Stephen King over his reported plan to charge high-profile users $20 a month to keep their “blue tick”.
The Tesla founder completed his £38 billion Twitter takeover last week and has already dissolved the company’s entire board of directors, naming himself “sole director”.
The billionaire is reported to be looking to increase the price of Twitter Blue from $5 (£4.30) to $20 a month (£17) with users given 90 days to sign up or lose the blue tick and verified status.
But the suggestion provoked the ire of the IT and Carrie novelist King.
“$20 to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron,” he wrote on Twitter. Musk told the writer it was the “only way to defeat the bots and trolls”, adding: “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8.”
Musk has told users the “whole verification process is being revamped right now”. Its verification system is designed to identify authentic and influential users on the platform, including government figures, sports and entertainment stars, journalists and major brands.
It requires an account to be complete — meaning they have a name, image and email address or phone number, must have been active within the last six months, and have a record of adhering to Twitter’s rules.
Musk yesterday appointed himself Twitter chief executive and sacked the board as he begins to re-shape the social media giant after his takeover. Among those axed is London businesswoman and peer Martha Lane Fox who founded lastminute.com and is currently Chancellor of the Open University.
Musk, who went to supermodel Heidi Klum’s Halloween party on Monday night in a red suit of armour, hinted he could bring back Vine, a short-form video app which was a forerunner of TikTok, and allow users to select a film-style age rating to filter content.
“Being able to select which version of Twitter you want is probably better, much as it would be for a movie maturity rating.”
