Twitter will soon start charging verified users $19.99 per month for the blue check mark verifying the authenticity of an account, The Verge is reporting.
The blue “verified” badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic.
To qualify, accounts must be “notable, authentic and active.”
This includes accounts of government officials, people representing prominent brands, news organisations, journalists, activists, celebrities, athletes and others.
The development comes just days after Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla Inc, completed his takeover of Twitter.
On Sunday, he tweeted: “The whole verification process is being revamped right now.”
But Musk did not give more details on the process.
According to The Verge, a news website, 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.
