Twitter Revises User Verification Process; To Hike Blue Subscription Charge

(RTTNews) - Twitter is revising its user verification process, Chief Twit Elon Musk, who acquired the social media platform in a $44-billion deal, said in a tweet.

Musk, who is now in charge of the microblogging and social networking service, on Sunday tweeted, "The whole verification process is being revamped right now." Since reaching acquisition agreement in April, Musk had conveyed many times that he wanted to revamp how Twitter verifies accounts and handles bots.

Meanwhile, The Verge reported that Twitter will soon start charging users as much as $19.99 per month for Twitter Blue, its premium subscription service, which is currently available for $4.99 a month.

Under the proposed plan, verification will be a core feature of Twitter Blue service, which now offers various additional features such as edit button, custom reader mode, and bookmarks among others.

Musk reportedly has given a deadline of November 7 to employees working on the project to introduce paid verification on Twitter or they will be fired.

Existing verified users will get 90 days to subscribe to Twitter Blue or lose their verification.

In the recent days since he took control, Musk has introduced many changes at Twitter. The homepage for logged-out users is being redirected to the Explore page that shows trending tweets and news stories, while earlier it showed only a sign-up form.

Once he took charge, Musk fired Twitter's key executives including CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal, and he reportedly plans mass layoffs mainly middle managers and engineers.

The Washington Post reported earlier that Musk plans to eliminate about 75 percent of Twitter's staff following the acquisition.