Ever since Tesla founder Elon Musk acquired Twitter as a sole director of the company while closing a deal of $44 billion, there has been an intense debate about the upcoming changes. So far, Musk has dissolved the board and fired members including Indian CEO Parag Agrawal. Now, speculation is rife that Musk will soon begin charging verified Twitter accounts.
Amidst this, America’s best-selling author Stephen King has expressed his disappointment over an anticipated monthly fee for owning a blue tick on Twitter. And Elon Musk has responded on his tweet.
Stephen King, who goes by the username, @StephenKing, had written, “$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me.” Referring to the 2001 epic bankruptcy case of Enron, an American company, Mr. King added, “If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”
To which, Musk replied by pitching a bargaining amount to the author. “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?” the tech billionaire shared.
Their Twitter exchange is going viral on the micro-blogging platform.
Here’s how Twitterati are reacting to their conversation:
In another tweet, Elon Musk added that he will explain the whole concept of charging fee before it gets implemented. “It is the only way to defeat the bots and trolls,” he wrote further.
Check out the tweet here:
According to a newsletter, Platformer, there has been talks about Twitter considering the charges for verified badges on the platform, Reuters reported. If the project goes forward, users would have to subscribe to blue ticks at $4.99 per month or they will end up losing their verified badges, it added.
Twitter director Elon Musk is yet to announce a decision.
What do you think about it?