Sources: Elon Musk weighs adding paid DMs to let users privately message “Very Important Tweeters”; docs show Twitter Blue checks won't require ID verification
The billionaire and his advisers have discussed adding paid direct messages, fees to watch videos and other features to the service.
New York Times
Context & Ripple Effects
Musk had already proposed that Twitter Blue subscribers receive an authentication checkmark, while an October plan reportedly tied a higher-priced Blue tier to verification. The new documents separate the badge from ID confirmation, making the subscription a paid status product rather than a verified-identity credential.
Paid messages and video fees extend the same monetization push from Blue into individual interactions and media consumption. Twitter later imposed daily DM limits on unverified accounts, linking DM access controls to the platform's spam-management response.
First-order effects
Twitter Blue’s checkmark would be available without ID verification, weakening the badge’s value as a signal of confirmed identity while making it a subscriber benefit.
Musk and Twitter could turn access to prominent accounts and video viewing into paid features, creating new charges for users who want private outreach or premium media access.
Second-order effects
Prominent Twitter users would face a choice between monetizing inbound access and preserving open direct-message channels, while ordinary users encounter a more tiered communication system.
The lack of ID verification makes anti-impersonation and trust enforcement more consequential for Twitter as it sells a checkmark; later DM sending limits for unverified accounts show messaging controls becoming part of that trade-off.
Third-order effects
If Twitter continues attaching identity-adjacent signals and communication privileges to subscriptions, the service shifts from an ad-supported public square toward capability tiering, where payment governs visibility, access, and reach.
The resulting distinction between a paid badge and verified identity may force platforms to make trust labels more explicit, particularly when paid features can amplify or monetize account-to-account contact.
The trend: Social platforms are increasingly unbundling formerly open interactions into paid access tiers while separating subscription status from identity verification.
We saw internal docs with more insight into the new Twitter Blue: -Launch on Nov. 7 but only in current markets (US, CA, Aus, NZ) -Check marks for subscribers, no current ID authentication -Some features announced by Musk won't be ready -Euro launch soon https://www.nytimes.com/.…
So “actual verification” would totally disappear. Worse, people could pay for the check mark to impersonate actual celebs, journalists, scientists, etc. https://twitter.com/...
If you own a @tesla, you understand the pace of quality software updates and how every couple of months, it feels like you've bought a new car. That's what Twitter Blue will feel like.
Want to know why this attack method works now & will work in the updated Twitter Blue scenario? Because real companies use Twitter as a customer support channel and they actually *do* ask for account details to support. When the criminals can match real world behavior, it works.
Ohhh. This is bad. The new Twitter blue badge won't actually verify your identity at all. You just pay the money and they give you the tick. It's a scammers' charter. https://twitter.com/...
I think this makes so much sense: Elon is basing decisions about Twitter around his own experience using it, which is that of the the most famous person on here, a nightmare https://t.co/EOfU2g4IWO
Would you pay for social-media features, including a blue check mark? Twitter's premium subscription service could help its bottom line, but the value it brings the average user is less clear. https://www.wsj.com/...
It was supposed to launch three days from now, but I think people at Twitter, including Elon, are smart enough to know that inundating the platform with anonymous trolls who bought $8 badges is just destroying value for no good reason.
I kinda doubt that the “pay for verification” thing is going to ship. The way it's structured right now (because handling privacy on actual verification is so labor intensive), there will be no verification process, and that's such a damaging product I think it will be paused.
I predict that over time the Twitter Blue offering will have so many fun, helpful, & delightful features that people will feel like it is way too cheap at $8. The initial offering is the *start* of an obsessive rollout of fantastic features you will get real value from.
If you were the head of product for a small startup and announced that your product strategy was “Make Money” you should be fired. It's not a product strategy and without one to inform the revenue plan, you are lost. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Oh and by the way, that ‘verified’ badge that people are going to be paying for? It's not going to mean your identity has been verified at all. “Subscribers would not need their identities authenticated to get the check mark, the documents suggested.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Twitter in a year will be thousands of “verified” spam accounts under the name of celebrities spending $8 a month to scam people, and a bunch of politicians/journalists posting “this verified account isn't actually me” screenshots https://twitter.com/...
I kind of think the opposite — people love believing that rich people they have political disagreements with are secretly unimpressive morons, but even if Musk's Twitter investment goes to $0 he's still had a tremendous world-changing career with impressive achievements. https://…
People love believing that the ultrarich are geniuses, but this story makes clear that Musk has no viable plan for this site, that his pro-troll position will choke off ad revenue, and that he has, largely out of vanity, put himself in a terrible position. https://www.nytimes.com…
Elon Musk in April: “authenticate the humans! No more revenue from spam bots!” Elon Musk now: “authenticate the humans? No! More revenue from spam bots!”
Wonder if we'll Twitter downtime incidients more than an hour in the next 30 days. Maybe, but maybe not. Either way someone somewhere is already preparing the lettuce. https://twitter.com/...
Revue is a fantastic newsletter platform, and Notes was looking like a smart approach to integrating blogging into twitter ... so yes of course he's killed them both. SIGH. https://twitter.com/...
Twitter servers are powered by a vast furnace constantly fed $20 bills in order to produce enough heat to generate steam to turn a turbine. I guess they'll have to switch to boring old grid electricity now, what a shame. https://twitter.com/...