Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Revise How It Verifies Users

(Reuters) – Twitter will revise its user verification process, Elon Musk said in a tweet on Sunday, just days after he took over one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.

“Whole verification process is being revamped right now”, Musk said in his tweet without giving more details.

Twitter is considering charging for the coveted blue check mark verifying the identity of its account holder, technology newsletter Platformer reported on Sunday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Users would have to subscribe to Twitter Blue at $4.99 a month or lose their “verified” badges if the project moves forward, according to the report.

The CEO of Tesla Inc has not made a final decision and the project could still be scrapped but according to Platformer it is likely that verification will become a part of Twitter Blue.

Separately, The Verge reported on Sunday that Twitter will increase the subscription price for Twitter Blue, which also verifies users, from $4.99 a month to $19.99 a month, citing internal correspondence seen by them.

Twitter Blue was launched in June last year as the platform’s first subscription service, which offers “exclusive access to premium features” on a monthly subscription basis including an option to edit tweets.

The feature to edit tweets was also made available earlier this month after Musk launched a Twitter poll in April asking his millions of followers whether they wanted an edit button. Over 70% had said yes.

Musk has also requested that logged out users visiting Twitter’s site be redirected to Explore page which shows trending tweets, according to a separate Verge report on Sunday citing employees who were familiar with the matter.

(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft and Sam Holmes)