Twitter users whose accounts have been verified will need to pay $19.99 (approximately N8,760) every month to retain their Blue badge. Existing accounts risk losing the badge if they fail to subscribe in 90 days.
The Twitter verified badge helps people know that an account of public interest is authentic. Getting the verified badge requires being notable and active.
Launched in 2021, the Twitter Blue badge offers exclusive access to premium features like the ability to edit tweets, undo tweets, and more.
Twitter describes notable accounts into different categories. These are government, News organizations, individuals in news and journalists, companies, brands and organizations, Entertainment, sports and gaming, activists and organizers and content creators, and influential individuals. For many users, the blue badge is a status symbol.
The microblogging platform recorded about 360,000 verified accounts, which is 0.2 percent of Twitter’s monetisable daily active users.
Getting verified also allows users to upload videos up to 10 minutes long and more. When it launched in 2021, the cost of verification was $3 but was reviewed upwards in October to $5.
According to a Verge report, the directive is likely to kick off in November as Twitter employees directly responsible for the upgrade were given a November 7 deadline to launch the feature or they will be fired.
Elon Musk the new owner of the microblogging platform confirmed the overhauling of the entire verification process while responding to a user who needed help to get his account verified. He is believed to be keen on growing subscriptions to become half of the company’s overall revenue.
Musk is also planning to rejig the character limit for Twitter posts. He is expected to cut more jobs starting this week and managers are reportedly creating lists of employees to cut.
