According to the plan, users would have 90 days to join the subscription programme or have their verified status revoked.
The new Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, Elon Musk, has lashed on those complaining about his new policy to charge verified accounts $8 per month.
Musk, who is the world's richest individual, had tasked his workers to work out plans to begin charging verified accounts $20 per month in order to retain their blue check-mark badges.
It had been reported on Sunday that he had planned to jack up the price of the Twitter Blue subscription plan from $4.99 to $19.99 per month, and would make the service the only way to retain verified-user status.
According to the plan, users would have 90 days to join the subscription programme or have their verified status revoked.
But there have been backlashes from Twitter power users including Writer Stephen King, who said, “$20 a month to keep my blue check?”
King on Monday tweeted to his 6.9 million followers. “They should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.” Later, King added, “It ain’t the money, it’s the principle of the thing.”
Reacting to King’s objection, Musk on Monday evening said, “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?” adding that, “I will explain the rationale in longer form before this is implemented. It is the only way to defeat the bots & trolls.”
But on Wednesday morning, Musk tweeted that complainers of the charge should continue to complain but it will not change anything as they must be charged $8 per month for the blue badge.
He tweeted, “To all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8. Totally stole idea of charging for insults & arguments from Monty Python tbh.”
He later followed it with “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.
“Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity. You will also get: Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam; Ability to post long video & audio; Half as many ads and paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us.
“This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators. There will be a secondary tag below the name for someone who is a public figure, which is already the case for politicians.”