Twitter has started charging businesses £950 a month for a gold verification badge following controversial changes under CEO Elon Musk.
Companies that want to keep their ‘official’ Twitter checkmark will be given no option but to pay £11,400 per year – plus an extra £50/month to have affiliated business accounts.
The charges come as part of Twitter’s efforts to be ‘the most trusted place on the internet’, with gold badges launched in December to verify the legitimacy of businesses online.
Prior to Musk’s takeover, Twitter’s classic blue ticks were free and given out to whoever it deemed eligible, but even these have now bumped up to an £11 monthly charge.
Despite these price hikes, fees are still ‘subject to change’ as the platform aims to ‘improve’ its services and change features ‘from time to time’.
Companies will have to pay £11,400 each year to keep their gold checkmark on Twitter
Changes follow Elon Musk’s belief that Twitter’s previous verification system was ‘corrupted’
On its website, Twitter said: ‘Any organization that purchases a subscription to Verified Organizations will receive a gold checkmark and square avatar if they are a business or non-profit, or a grey checkmark and circular avatar if they are a governmental or multilateral organization.
‘In addition, organizations can choose to affiliate any individual or entity associated with them. An affiliated account receives verification (denoted by either a blue, gold, or grey checkmark) as well as an affiliate badge, a small image of their parent company’s profile picture, displayed next to their checkmark.’
Affiliate accounts, costing £50/month, can be given to any associated brands, support handles, employees or related teams.
But this is not restricted to just businesses as Twitter says that governments can affiliate related entities, officials and precincts too.
There is currently no limit to the number of affiliates an organisation can have – provided that they are all related.
Rumours of the new gold charge first arose following a ‘leaked’ email last month in which a Twitter employee allegedly offered an organisation ‘early access’ to verification.
In the email, shared by social media analyst Matt Navarra, a gold checkmark subscription was quoted to cost $1,000.
The changes follow Musk’s belief that the previous verification system was problematic.
‘Twitter’s legacy Blue Verified is unfortunately deeply corrupted, so will sunset in a few months,’ he said in February.
In an email, dated February 2 and shared by social media analyst Matt Navarra, Twitter staff member Evan Jones quoted the price of subscription and offered the organization a ‘gold checkmark’ in return
Musk posted a tweet in February saying that current ‘legacy’ checkmarks will be removed
Last year, Musk told advertisers he wanted Twitter to become a ‘digital town square’ but not a ‘free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences’.
As part of this, he wanted to take down bot accounts and restore free speech and trust in the platform.
But now that anyone can apply for one of Twitter’s blue ticks, many have begun impersonating celebrities and other individuals.
One user fooled others into thinking former US President Donald Trump tweeted: ‘This is why Elon Musk’s plan doesn’t work.’
Another account impersonated former President George W Bush – who appeared to post a distasteful tweet about Iraq – and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
However, following his takeover Musk did anticipate a lot of ‘dumb things’ on the site.
