Elon Musk hints he may slash $20/ month blue tick fee to $8

Elon Musk says $20/ month blue tick charge is ‘only way to defeat bots and trolls’ but hints he may slash fee to $8

• Twitter CEO Elon Musk hinted he might lower the $20 blue tick verification fee
• He offered horror writer Stephen King a discount of $12 in a Twitter exchange 
• ‘$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me,’ said King 

Twitter chief executive Elon Musk has hinted he might lower the $20 per month blue tick verification fee during an exchange with horror writer Stephen King, where he offered him a discount.

The billionaire is looking to make good on his promise to make the social media platform turn a profit by introducing a charge for Twitter users wanting to keep their verification badge.

But in a sign that the price might not be a done deal, Musk responded to a tweet from the writer complaining about the new charge.

‘$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me,’ wrote King, who has 6.9million followers. ‘If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.’

But Musk, noticing the author’s complaints, seemed to be in the mood to haggle.

‘We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?’ he replied.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the discount would apply only to King or to the wider Twitter user base as well, but the comments suggested the $20 figure was not exactly set in stone.

Musk went on to say that he will ‘explain the rationale in longer form’ before the charge is implemented, but added that it is ‘the only way to defeat the bots & trolls’.

When users replied to say King could more than afford the fee, he replied: ‘It ain’t the money, it’s the principle of the thing.’

The author, who has previously said he ‘admires Elon Musk’, hasn’t yet responded to the chief executive directly. But many of his fans rushed in to comment in his stead.

’44 Billion to buy the place and his new revenue stream is to push a tin cup at Stephen King,’ said one Twitter user.

‘It’s nice of you to give Stephen King who is worth $500M a $12/mo discount,’ said another.

‘He’s not leaving. They all threaten but they need this platform,’ said a third user.

Entrepreneur Jason Calacanis posted a poll on Monday asking people if they would pay $5, $10 or $15 a month, or nothing for verification. Around 81 per cent said they wouldn’t pay, as of the time of writing.

‘Interesting,’ said Musk in response to the poll. 

Elon Musk is pictured speaking with employees at Twitter HQ. The CEO  allegedly issued an ultimatum to the platform’s engineers, telling them to revamp the platform in two weeks

A blue tick badge allows other Twitter users to verify that other users are who they say they are. The feature has always been free since Twitter’s inception, but Musk is promising to shake up the company’s operations

A blue tick badge allows other Twitter users to verify that other users are who they say they are. 

The feature has always been free since Twitter’s inception, but since Musk first promised to buy Twitter, the world’s wealthiest man has made it clear he planned to shake things up at the social media giant.

The price will cover unspecified features which have not yet been revealed. 

The exchange comes after the new Twitter boss allegedly issued an ultimatum to the platform’s engineers, telling them to revamp Twitter’s verification system in less than a fortnight or face the sack.

Employees were only told of the project on October 30, and have until November 7 to deliver.

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