Twitter to Charge Businesses $1,000 For Badge, Business Owners Describe it as “Outlandish”

Microblogging platform Twitter has recently announced plans to charge business accounts on the platform $1000 (N745,000) plus an additional $50 (N37,250) for each affiliated sub-account to maintain their gold checkmark verification badges.

In a tweet, Twitter Verified Account disclosed that it will remove legacy verification check marked starting from April 1st, which means that business accounts that earned verification badges under the company’s former system will have to start paying $1,000 per month.

Meanwhile, an internet document revealed that Twitter’s top 500 advertising partners, and the 10,000 most-followed organizations will be exempted from paying the fee. Twitter revealed that verifying organizations is a new way for them and affiliates to distinguish themselves on the platform which reduces reliance on Twitter to be the sole Arbiter of truth.

Twitter wrote, “Verified Organizations is a new way for organizations and their affiliates to distinguish themselves on Twitter. Rather than relying on Twitter to be the sole arbiter of truth for which accounts should be verified, vetted organizations that sign up for Verified Organizations are in full control of vetting and verifying accounts they’re affiliated with.

“Accounts affiliated with the organization will receive an affiliate badge on their profile with the organization’s logo and will be featured on the organization’s Twitter profile, indicating their affiliation. All organizations are vetted before they can join Verified Organizations.”

Following Twitter’s recent verification fee for businesses, a lot of business owners who are displeased have taken to their Twitter handles to describe the decision as “outlandish and meaningless”.

Co-founder of Pillow-fight company William LeGate stated that the $1,000 a month charge does not make any sense. He said his firm would not miss being verified because the blue checkmark didn’t offer a noticeable boost in engagement. “Blue checks will be overtaken by trolls and imposters starting April 1st. People will begin associating blue check marks with scammers, vile trolls, and Musk sycophants”, he added.

A Twitter user @Mikedepo1 wrote, “My understanding is that it’s $1,000/ month for the organization, then $50/ month per affiliate. I don’t know how a business can justify that cost, maybe they already know news outlets will want to pay that”.

Another user @PhilpottGrady wrote, “The organizations I belong to are non-profit and I don’t want them to spend their precious funds here on Twitter”.

Twitter’s recent development is coming after it had earlier disclosed that it would permit only verified accounts in for your recommendations, also stating that non-verified accounts would not be allowed to conduct or participate in any poll on the platform.

Investors King understands that since acquiring Twitter for $44 billion in October last year, Elon Musk amassed about $12.5 billion in debt and has constantly been looking for ways to massively generate more revenue for the company.