According to reports, after Elon Musk took over Twitter, the famous author Stephen King (Stephen King) become not too happy.
After completing its acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion last week, Elon Musk is reportedly planning to charge Blue Verified users $20 a month to keep their Blue Verified. Users who get blue certification are real accounts of celebrities, politicians, journalists and other public figures.
Stephen King said he would leave Twitter if the plan went ahead, saying, “To pay $20 a month to keep my blue credentials? They should pay me. If this goes through, I’ll disappear like Enron.”
His attitude also highlights the risks Elon Musk faces in reforming Twitter and the opposition to whether most people would be willing to pay $20 a month, or $240 a year, for a blue certification logo.
The move essentially amounts to sending a bill to your high-profile users, and while it may boost Twitter’s subscription revenue and diversify it further beyond the company’s core advertising model, the change could also drive away some of Twitter’s key users.
Many social networks, such as TikTok and Meta, are doing the opposite, offering money to the big names and influencers who use their platforms, with the goal of driving growth by keeping those who produce the most engaging content happy.
The change will also open the door to fake accounts posing as journalists, celebrities, government officials and organizations, which could lead to a spike in the spread of disinformation on Twitter. Elon Musk has already criticized strict social media regulation, portraying himself as an advocate of “free speech. And the reduction in verification marks and lax vetting guidelines could be a perfect storm for unchecked misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Stephen King is not the only public figure opposed to this potential plan.
Nate Silver, editor of the political analysis website FiveThirtyEight, also said on Twitter that he “might be the perfect target for this idea” because he “can afford it” and is “not particularly opposed to Elon Musk. And he’s “not, particularly anti-Musk,” but he’s “created so much valuable free content for Twitter over the years that he’s definitely not going to pay for it.
Josh Marshall, the founder of the political news site Talking Points Memo, wrote on Twitter, “I think they’re in for a rude surprise, how many people are willing to pay $20 a month for a blue logo?”
In the chaos that Elon Musk experienced in his first few days as Twitter’s owner, he faced challenges that went beyond public figures threatening to leave Twitter.
Immediately after taking over Twitter, he fired several executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal. He is also reportedly preparing to lay off 25 percent of the company’s workforce.
