Twitter engineers are said to have just days to make it happen.
Elon Musk has reportedly issued an ultimatum to Twitter engineers over a new verification project that involves charging users more money.
According to
The Verge, Musk wants to change Twitter Blue - the company’s optional $4.99 a month subscription that unlocks additional features - into a more expensive subscription that also verifies users at a cost of $19.99 a month.
Engineers at the social media platform were told of the plan on 30 October, but have to make it happen by 7 November, or be fired, the news outlet said.
Under the reported plan, current verified users would have 90 days to subscribe or lose their blue checkmark.
In the months leading up to the acquisition, signed Friday, Musk had been clear that he wanted to revamp how Twitter verifies accounts and handles bots.
On Sunday, he tweeted: “The whole verification process is being revamped right now.”
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1586848033550934016?t=R0DkX52JW1dnE3oRvGCmBw&s=19
Platformer’s Casey Newton first reported that Twitter was considering charging for verification.
Twitter has not commented on the reports.
The social media platform is said to have close to 400,000 verified users.
Twitter Blue launched almost a year ago as a way to view ad-free articles from some publishers and make other tweaks to the app, such as a different colour home screen icon.
In the few quarters that Twitter reported earnings as a public company after it debuted, advertising remained the vast majority of its revenue.
However, Musk is reportedly keen on growing subscriptions to become half of the company’s overall revenue.
The Tesla CEO is just days into owning Twitter but has already fired top execs and changed its homepage for logged-out users.
With the help of Tesla engineers he has brought into Twitter as advisors, The Verge states that he is also planning mass layoffs aimed at middle managers and engineers who have not recently contributed to the code base.
The outlet has reported that those cuts are expected to begin this week with managers already creating lists of employees to cut.
