Pay Up Blue Checks: Elon Musk Plans to Charge $20 a Month for Twitter Verification

Elon Musk has reportedly given Twitter employees their first major task — introducing a $20 per month subscription for users to gain a verification badge by November 7 or leave the company.

The Verge reports that Elon Musk has given employees at Twitter their first assignment — introducing a $20 per month subscription fee for users to gain a blue check verification badge by November 7 or join the unemployment line. Musk wants developers to alter Twitter Blue, the company’s $4.99 per month subscription program that unlocks certain features, into a more expensive subscription that verifies users.

Twitter is currently planning to charge $19.99 for the new Twitter Blue subscription. Currently verified users will reportedly have 90 days to subscribe to the program or lose their checkmark. Employees have been told that they need to meet a deadline of November 7 to launch the feature or they will be fired.

Musk has previously stated his plans to revamp how Twitter verifies accounts and handles bot accounts on the platform. Musk tweeted on Sunday: “The whole verification process is being revamped right now.”

Twitter’s verification system has been criticized for years. In 2021 Breitbart News reported that Twitter admitted it added its verification checkmark, meant to ensure the public that an account is authentic, to a number of fake accounts run by bots. The platform’s shoddy verifications follow the blacklisting of high-profile conservatives such as James O’Keefe, who before his banning was refused verification by the platform despite a constant flow of fake accounts mimicking him to confuse the public.

A Twitter spokesperson said at the time: “We mistakenly approved the verification applications of a small number of inauthentic (fake) accounts. We have now permanently suspended the accounts in question, and removed their verified badge, under our platform manipulation and spam policy.”

Breitbart News has previously published a full guide explaining how to spot fake accounts across social media. Interestingly, Twitter seems capable of accidentally verifying random bot accounts but unable to verify legitimate conservative figures.

Investigative journalist and Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe was permanently blacklisted by Twitter in April of this year. Breitbart News wrote at the time:

James O’Keefe, the founder of the investigative journalism organization Project Veritas, has been permanently blacklisted by Twitter, just as his organization releases bombshell undercover footage showing senior CNN employees admitting to using “propaganda.” @Project_Veritas, the organization’s official account, has also been suspended.

In a comment to Breitbart News, a Twitter spokeswoman said the suspension was permanent. This comes directly after O’Keefe and Project Veritas publicly embarrassed the far-left news network CNN.

Twitter has also “mistakenly” censored journalism from Project Veritas that revealed that thousands of immigrants were forced to sleep in tight quarters at a Texas detention center following the implementation of Joe Biden’s immigration plan. Breitbart News reported:

Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe posted a video featuring a compilation of the photos to Twitter on Monday morning. The video was promptly hidden behind a filter claiming the content was “potentially sensitive,” requiring users with the sensitive content filter to click through the warning message in order to see it.

A Twitter spokeswoman told Breitbart News that the “potentially sensitive content” warning was “incorrectly applied by one of our automated tools and it has since been removed.”

Musk has appointed himself “Chief Twit” at the moment but reportedly plans to take over the role of CEO at the company, but may hand the responsibility off to another executive at some point.