Stephen King Blasts Twitter's Reported Plan To Charge Blue-Tickers US$20; Elon Musk Asks "How About $8"
Elon Musk insists Twitter needs to charge for its "blue tick" to battle "bots and trolls".
The Tesla boss — who completed his US$44 billion (S$62 bil) takeover of the platform last week — is looking to charge users to have a blue tick on their account by making verification part of the Twitter Blue subscription, with reports suggesting the fee could go from US$4.99 a month to US$19.99.
This has angered many users of the app, including iconic horror writer Stephen King, who insisted he would quit if that was the case.
The Carrie author tweeted: "$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I'm gone like Enron."
Musk has since responded to King to explain his decision.
"We need to pay the bills somehow!" he wrote. "Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?"
Musk also promised to delve deeper into his "rationale" for the move before it gets put in place.
He added: "I will explain the rationale in longer form before this is implemented. It is the only way to defeat the bots and trolls."
Before the sale of Twitter was finalised on October, Musk shared his vision for the platform.
He tweeted in a message called ‘Dear Twitter Advertisers’:
I wanted to reach out personally to share my motivation in acquiring Twitter. There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong.
The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence. There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.
In the relentless pursuit of clicks, much of traditional media has fueled and catered to those polarized extremes, as they believe that is what brings in the money, but, in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is lost.
That is why I bought Twitter. I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.
That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences! In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all, where you can choose your desired experience according to your preferences, just as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play video games ranging from all ages to mature.
I also very much believe that advertising, when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you; it can show you a service or product or medical treatment that you never knew existed, but is right for you. For this to be true, it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs. Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content!
Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise. To everyone who has partnered with us, I thank you. Let us build something extraordinary together.
— BANG SHOWBIZ
Photos: TPG News/Click Photos
