Verified Twitter users will soon start paying $19.99 per month for the blue check mark that confirms the authenticity of an account, according to e report by The Verge.
Gatekeepers News reports that the development comes just days after the billionaire founder of Tesla Inc, Elon Musk completed his takeover of Twitter.
The blue “verified” badge on Twitter allows people to know that an account of public interest is authentic. For an account to be verified, the user’s account must be “notable, authentic and active.”
This includes accounts of government officials, people representing prominent brands, news organisations, journalists, activists, celebrities, athletes and others.
Musk, on Sunday, tweeted: “The whole verification process is being revamped right now.”
He, however, did not give further details on the process.
Gatekeepers News quotes a report by The Verge which says Twitter accounts that already have the verification will have to comply with this new mechanism and pay up for the blue badge.
It said verified users would have 90 days to subscribe or lose their blue check mark.
Also, employees working on the project were told on Sunday that they need to meet a deadline of November 7, 2022, to launch the feature or they will be fired.
The new changes for verified accounts will, reportedly, be introduced under Twitter Blue.
Twitter Blue, which costs $4.99 monthly is the microblogging platform’s paid monthly subscription which offers users exclusive access to premium features such as the option to edit a tweet, undo a tweet, and read news ad-free.