Bestselling author Stephen King's tweet expressing disappointment over the anticipated fee for a verified badge has drawn a response from none other than Elon Musk, who recently took over the microblogging platform in a $44 billion deal.
Amid speculation that Twitter may soon start charging verified users a monthly fee for the blue ticks on their handles, Mr King said, "$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I'm gone like Enron."
There is much speculation over the monthly fee, with some reports claiming it will be around $5 a month to others putting it as high as $20. The Enron mention in the author's tweet refers to the epic fall of the major US corporation after years of rapid growth.
Responding to Mr King's tweet, Mr Musk said, "We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?"
The Tesla CEO, who had changed his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit" and has now updated it to "Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator", went on to add that he will explain the rationale behind charging a fee before any such change is made. He also termed it the "only way to defeat the bots & trolls".
The buzz around the fee for a verified badge has sparked an intense debate, with many saying it's not worth paying for a blue tick and others arguing that there is nothing wrong in charging people for the blue tick.
Musk, whose Twitter takeover went through dramatic developments that also reached the court, has said the verification process for accounts is being revamped. He did not add any details.
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.
Twitter Blue was launched in June last year as the platform's first subscription service which offers "exclusive access to premium features" on monthly subscription basis including a feature to edit tweets.
