By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer April 10, 2022, 10:34 p.m. • 2 minutes reading Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Email this article As the newest board member of Twitter and the largest shareholder, Elon Musk is already making proposals for changes he would like to see on the social networking platform. In a series of tweets late Saturday, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX said the company should include an “authentication mark” as a feature of the Twitter Blue premium subscription service, which costs $ 2.99 a month. Twitter adds a check mark next to a username when the account has been verified as “authentic, reputable and active”. Musk also suggested that Twitter make the authentication marks of premium subscriber accounts different from those granted to official accounts owned by public figures, for example. Such a move, Musk said, would “massively expand” the pool of verified user accounts and discourage the proliferation of unwanted “bot” accounts, making them too costly to maintain. Musk also shared ideas on how Twitter should charge for its subscription, saying the charge “should be commensurate with affordability and local currency” and adding: “Maybe a Doge payment option?”. referring to the Dogecoin cryptocurrency. “And not ads,” Musk wrote on Twitter. “The power of companies to dictate policy is greatly enhanced if Twitter depends on advertising money to survive.” Almost 90% of Twitter revenue in 2021 came from advertising. Musk’s latest Twitter tweets, including the posting of polls asking his 81 million followers if Twitter is “dying” and if the company’s San Francisco headquarters should be turned into a homeless shelter “since no one shows up. otherwise “, followed a tweet earlier in the week. asking if it should add an edit button to the platform. Last week, Twitter revealed in a regulatory statement that it had struck a deal with Musk to give the billionaire a seat on the company’s board, ending his term at the 2024 annual shareholders’ meeting. The move came a day after it was revealed that Musk took a 9% stake in the company. Twitter declined to comment on Sunday. ——— This story has been corrected to show that the Twitter Blue subscription is $ 2.99 per month and not $ 3 per month.
