Elon Musk clashes with Stephen King over Twitter’s $20 verification charge

Elon Musk clashed with author Stephen King over a report that Twitter will soon charge verified users $20 a month to keep their verified status.

King tweeted Monday night, “$20 a month to keep my blue check? F— that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”

Musk, who formally took over Twitter late last week, replied early Tuesday to defend the plan to charge verified users on the platform, though suggesting the price wasn’t finalized.

“We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?” Musk wrote in his tweet.

The plan to charge users $20 a month would make it a more expensive version of the existing premium Twitter plan called “Twitter Blue,” which charges users $4.99 per month for exclusive features, such as the ability to edit tweets after they are posted.

Verified Twitter users who already have a blue check mark beside their name will reportedly have 90 days to subscribe to Twitter Blue, or they will lose their verified status.

King was one of many high-profile Twitter users to complain of the reported change to verified status on the platform.

Actress Lynda Carter, journalist Kara Swisher and FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver, among others, have complained about the proposed cost, while others have raised concerns about how adding charges might change the platform.

Musk’s takeover has also spurred worries about misinformation. Musk, a self-described “free-speech absolutist,” has said he would bring back Twitter users who have been previously banned, including former President Trump.  

Musk, however, assured Twitter advertisers in a note last week that he would not allow the platform to turn into a “free-for-all hellscape.”