Since Elon Musk officially became the new owner of Twitter last month he's been talking about implementing some pretty serious changes on the social media site. On Sunday (November 6), one of the most talked about updates began its official rollout as the South African-born multihyphenate is now charging users $7.99/month to join Twitter Blue.
"Get Twitter Blue if you sign up now," the company encouraged account holders in a statement shared earlier today. "Blue checkmark: Power to the people. Your account will get a blue checkmark, just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you follow."
Musk made sure to thank those who have joined him in the "battle against the bots" which he has long maintained are running rampant on the platform. "We're going to reward you with half the ads and make them twice as relevant," he assured would-be Twitter Blue users.
Other benefits of joining the ever-growing list of verified subscribers include posting extended videos and receiving priority ranking in the replies, mentions, and searches across the website.
As TMZ notes, Musk is hoping that he'll be able to offset some of the major losses he's taken since spending $44B on Twitter in a deal that took months to finally close. Most recently, the Tesla CEO has been insisting that the platform is hemorrhaging $4M a day, which lead to his decision to fire roughly 3,700 employees.
Workers have since filed a class action lawsuit in an attempt to save their jobs, arguing that they were given insufficient notice from their new boss, which falls in violation of federal and California state law.
Musk responded by giving laid-off workers three months of severance pay, which he asserted is "50% more than legally required."
Will you be signing up for Elon Musk's Twitter Blue service? Sound off in the comments below, and tap back in with HNHH later for more pop culture news updates.
[Via]