Elon Musk says charges for Twitter verification is $8 per month and will vary by country

Elon Musk has unveiled his plan for Twitter disclosing, among others, that payment for the blue badge on the app will be $8 per month.

This is a reduction compared to earlier reports of $20 a month attributed to employees of the company. 

Musk said the price will be adjusted according to purchasing power parity of a country in an attempt to expand Twitter’s paid subscription, Twitter Blue, across the globe. According to Musk, the social network’s current verification system is akin to a “lords & peasants” system.  

More benefits for verified users: Musk also noted some of the features that will roll out with this new plan, including fewer ads, priority in replies, which verified handles get through the “Verified” notification channel mentions and search, and the ability to post longer videos than the current limit of 2 minutes 20 seconds.

Power to the people and revenue for Twitter: In a Twitter thread announcing the new plan, Elon Musk said:

• “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 defeating spam/scams; the Ability to post long videos & 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. Yes, this will destroy the bots. If a paid Blue account engages in spam/scam, that account will be suspended. Essentially, this raises the cost of crime on Twitter by several orders of magnitude,” he added.