By now, everyone knows that the social media app, Twitter, is now run by the billionaire Elon Musk himself. He went ahead and started his reign on Twitter on 27 October 2022, by firing the top executives. Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition and swore to rid the platform of unnecessary limits when it comes to the kind of content being posted.
However, in an interesting update, Elon Musk now plans on making people pay for being famous. Since he is now looking for ways to generate more money from Twitter, people might have to pay a pre-decided amount monthly. That is if they want to retain their beloved blue verification tick beside their name. Fans couldn’t help but remember Superior Iron Man and his endeavor with the app, Extremis 3.0.
Elon Musk Wants to Charge for a Blue Tick
With Elon Musk finally sitting at the head of Twitter’s table, he has already begun his quest for bringing changes to the platform. He recently tweeted that the “current lords and peasants” system has got to go. He stated that he plans on charging an amount of $8 per month if the user wants a blue tick. According to Musk, this step will allow Twitter to generate a revenue stream, which will be used to reward content creators on the app.
The serial entrepreneur added that this price will come with many other features for the user, including a priority in replies, mentions, and searches. The user will also be able to post longer audio and videos and will have half as many ads as now. The charges for the blue tick will also vary from country to country, as Musk stated that the fee will be adjusted accordingly by “country proportionate to purchasing power parity.”
Earlier, people had speculated that the fee would be as high as $20 per month, which resulted in receiving immense backlash from users, including the king of the horror genre, Stephen King himself. The author took to Twitter to make his disapproval public, stating that he would rather delete his account.
$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 31, 2022
Musk was quick to reply to King stating that the team has to pay bills, one way or another. He added that the fee will be lowered from $20 to $8. Musk stated that if people want to complain, they’re free to do so, but it will cost them $8. While $8 still might be too much for a verified account, users might have to comply with it after all.
Is Elon Musk the Real Life Superior Iron Man?
Elon Musk is notoriously known for his enthusiasm for technology and wanting to push the limits of what is possible. One wouldn’t be too far off if Musk was to be compared to the genius, billionaire, Tony Stark.
However, with the current ordeal, it would be better to compare the Tesla owner with the Superior Iron Man, an evil and much more arrogant Tony Stark than what we have seen and love.
In Avengers & X-Men: AXIS, Wanda’s magic spell went haywire and caused the inversion of the superheroes’ moral axis, including Tony Stark. The egocentric Superior Iron Man released a now-modified Extremis 3.0 which gave users the option to reach physical perfection. However, there was a catch. The free version of the app was a mere trial run and users now had to pay a hefty sum of $99.99 daily, should they want to keep their physical perfection.
Ironically, this is what Elon Musk seems to be doing as well. The only difference is that Superior Iron Man’s actions only affected a fictional world, while Musk has a real world to deal with.
Source: Twitter
