Musk: "If Twitter Paid Verification Is Not Introduced Within a Week, I'll Fire"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla who acquired Twitter, has issued an 'ultimatum' to Twitter employees to implement a paid verification feature within about a week and threatened to fire employees if the deadline is not met, according to U.S. media reports.

On the 30th (local time), U.S. IT specialized media The Verge cited sources saying, "Musk instructed through an internal notice on that day to prepare a plan to raise the subscription fee of the premium subscription service 'Twitter Blue,' currently $4.99 per month (about 7,100 KRW), and to reform the verification method by the 7th of next month," adding, "He said that if this deadline is not met, all related employees will be fired."

Twitter is currently considering a plan to significantly raise the monthly subscription fee of Twitter Blue to $19.99. Musk had previously announced reform work related to account verification and spam bot handling during the Twitter acquisition process, and on the same day, he mentioned on Twitter that "all verification procedures will be immediately reformed." However, The Verge reported that a Twitter spokesperson did not respond to requests to confirm related details.

Bloomberg News reported that Musk is also conducting a survey asking Twitter users whether to revive 'Vine,' a short video service app that Twitter shut down in 2016. As of 5:31 PM KST on the 31st, about 1.87 million people had responded to the survey, with 70% supporting the revival of Vine.

Vine, acquired by Twitter in 2012, served as a gateway for internet creators but was shut down due to conflicts over compensation issues with them. The following year, Chinese company ByteDance acquired the video production app 'Musical.ly' and developed it into the short video sharing platform TikTok, which became a global hit.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.