Elon Musk confirmed Twitter employees secretly sold verification badges for upwards of $15,000.
According to Twitter’s previous policy, blue verification badges are free and were given to users who requested them and were able to prove their notability.
The news broke after the Wall Street Bet’s account tweeted out that some “Twitter employees were selling verification for upwards of $15,000. For certain accounts, mine included, they would refuse to verify you through the standard application”.
Musk would respond to the WSB Account by saying “yup”.
Wall Streets Bets wasn’t the only prominent figure to not be able to obtain a verification under the old Twitter regime.
Pennsylvania candidate Doug Mastriano also never received a verification badge despite applying for it and meeting Twitter guidelines in what it means to be a prominent candidate for office.
Under Elon Musk, getting a verification badge will be much easier.
For just $7.99 subscribers of Twitter Blue will receive a verification badge.
That’s a lot more affordable than $15,000.
Twitter will still be free for all users but the $7.99 will allow users to keep or obtain a blue verification badge along with having features such as editing tweets and fewer ads.