Elon Musk Says Twitter Basic Blue Subscription Will Cut Ads by Half

Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted Monday that Twitter’s simple blue tick will have half the ads and the social media platform will offer a higher tier of no ads by next year. Musk also confirmed in a reply to a Twitter user that the microblogging platform would eventually remove blue ticks from “legacy accounts” that have been screened for prominence in a variety of areas.

musk did not go into the details. The company has reactivated them Twitter Blue Signing on Monday, after announcing last week that personal accounts would receive a blue tick, while gold and gray ticks denoted business and government accounts.

The monthly subscription price is $8 (about Rs 660) on the web and $11 (about Rs 900) on the web Apple devices or

Twitter makes almost 90 percent of its revenue from selling digital ads, and Musk recently credited a “massive drop in revenue” to civil rights organizations that have pressured brands to pause their Twitter ads.

Musk also responded to a user who stated that old verified accounts would lose their ticks in the coming months. “The way they were spent was corrupt and nonsensical,” he said.

The company initially launched Twitter Blue in early November before being paused when fake accounts mushroomed. It was then scheduled to start again on November 29, but was postponed.

Elon Musk, who privatized Twitter for $44 billion in November, posted a series of tweets last month listed various complaints at Apple, including the 30 percent fee the iPhone maker charges software developers for in-app purchases.

The commission could weigh in on Musk’s attempts to boost Twitter subscription revenue, in part to offset the exodus of advertisers over content moderation concerns.

The fee has drawn criticism and lawsuits from companies like Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, while drawing the attention of regulators worldwide.

© Thomson Reuters 2022