Twitter is considering instituting a new fee structure that will charge businesses $1,000 per month to maintain their gold verification badges.
It is unknown when badges will be revoked from businesses and organizations that fail to pay the required cost. Internal messages received by the news organization said that maintaining gold badges will cost $1,000 per month plus $50 per month for each ‘connected account.
Twitter Set To Charge Companies
This assertion is corroborated by a leaked email from a Twitter employee to an unidentified organization, in which the group was offered ‘early access’ to ‘Verification for Organizations.
Evan Jones, in an email dated February 2 and supplied by social media researcher Matt Navarra, stated the same $1,000 subscription price and offered the organization a gold checkmark in exchange.
Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner and chief executive officer, has implemented a number of changes in an effort to increase revenue and make the firm profitable. According to the WSJ, this involves massive layoffs that halved the company’s workforce from approximately 7,500 prior to the takeover.
It comes only months after Musk’s controversial move to charge regular Twitter users $8 per month for the company’s classic blue checkmarks, which were formerly provided to anybody considered qualified.
The introduction of the $8 membership coincided with the debut of the new gold checkmarks and square profile images, as opposed to the previous round profile photographs.
Normal users who had blue checkmarks under the previous system still have them, but they are now accompanied by a message that reads: ‘This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable.
Musk tweeted on Friday that ultimately these checkmarks will be gone. Blue Verified, a legacy feature of Twitter that is deeply tainted, will be discontinued in a few months. As a result of the December change, a large number of fake accounts appeared on the network.
Musk later stated that organizations will soon be able to identify Twitter accounts affiliated with them. Supposedly, this service will now cost businesses an additional $5 per account.
This feature enables businesses and organizations to design small square tags that may be connected to the accounts of their employees or people affiliated with them to indicate an official relationship.
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Fake Accounts
Blue checkmarks appeared on fake accounts professing to represent major brands, including Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX, Roblox, Nestle, Lockheed Martin, and Eli Lilly.
The social networking platform suspended service as the number of bogus accounts grew, and new owner Musk reinstated the official logo for some users.
However, the damage had already been done to some companies whose stock prices fell due to fake tweets.
Eli Lilly slumped 4.5 percent on Friday after a person tweeted using an account that appeared to be an official Lilly profile: We are happy to announce that insulin is now free.
Additionally, the capitalization of the corporation fell by more than $7 billion. According to the Washington Post, Lilly issued an apology from its official Twitter account, and officials then halted all Twitter advertising operations.
On the same day, Lockheed Martin slid 5.5 percent after a fake account impersonating the company tweeted, We will begin freezing all weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United States until a further inquiry into their record of human rights abuses.
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