Twitter will start rolling out an $8/month subscription cost for its verification badge, amongst different options.

The adjustments to the enterprise mannequin come after a takeover by Elon Musk of the social media platform. Particulars for the brand new ‘Twitter Blue’ subscription hit the App Retailer over the weekend. “Beginning immediately, we’re including nice new options to Twitter Blue and have extra on the best way quickly,” the replace informs customers. 

Elon Musk revealed in a collection of tweets after his takeover that Twitter is dropping $4 million a day in income. It’s additionally taking a battering from advertisers who’ve paused or pulled their promoting technique for Twitter totally after the Musk takeover. Some corporations which have paused their ad spending embrace United Airways, the NAACP, Common Mills, Pfizer, Audi, Volkswagen, and Mondelez Worldwide Inc.

“The brand new Blue isn’t live as yet but – the spring to our launch continues however some of us might even see us making updates as a result of we’re testing and pushing adjustments in real time,” adds Esther Crawford, a supervisor for Twitter. Twitter says the brand new subscription service will be accessible till after Tuesday’s midterm elections, in keeping with reporting from The New York Instances. 

Twitter customers and workers alike have raised issues that the badges may very well be used to sow confusion forward of the election. The verification badge was one thing that meant an account was verified to belong to the individual or model which has it. The $8/month payment for the badge means anybody can have it–with no verification course of in place. 

Since his takeover of Twitter, Elon Musk has laid off roughly half of the individuals who laboured there. Round 3,700 individuals have lost their jobs as he and his advisors search for new methods to generate income from an organization that has long been unprofitable. Among the choices embrace ‘paid DMs’ to high-profile people and ‘paywalled’ movies. The New York Instances studies advisors have additionally mentioned resurrecting Vine from the useless–the unique precursor to TikTok.