[imagesource: Flickr / Yuri Samoilov]

Elon Musk’s long and contentious $44 billion purchase of Twitter was finally completed last month.

Once the ink dried on that contract, all the noise died down and everybody moved on with their lives.

Except, of course, that didn’t happen and some of Musk’s plans for the social media giant have stirred up fresh controversies.

In particular, Musk’s open letter to advertisers has been criticised along with his plan to charge $8 a month for users who want a verification tick, often called a ‘blue tick’.

Al Jazeera reports that along with the ‘prestige’ there are other perks:

Musk said blue-tick subscribers would get priority in replies, mentions and search, and be able to post longer videos and audios, while dealing with half as many ads.

He also offered subscribers a paywall bypass from “publishers willing to work with us”.

Twitter already has a subscription service, Twitter Blue, launched in June last year, which offers extra features such as the ability to edit tweets.

That $8 price is for US users but we would likely pay less than that in South Africa, reports Business Insider SA:

Twitter Blue will come at $8 per month, Musk said – but that number will be adjusted in different countries using purchasing power parity, a measure of the actual value of a currency in its home country rather than what people in other countries will pay for it.

There are different ways to calculate it, but $8 comes to just about R60 on that basis.

That price is slightly more than you pay for the most basic Showmax or Netflix subscription.

Sure, but neither of those gives you the chance to hurl abuse at strangers on the internet or receive validation after posting a slightly risqué picture.

It remains unclear when users will begin forking out for the blue tick. The ‘Oprah you get a’ meme comes to mind, here. A few clicks and voila:

I should be ashamed of myself but I’m not.

As is his wont, Musk has been busy sharing memes regarding the decision:

pic.twitter.com/kGncG7Hs3M

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022

pic.twitter.com/BYOBGBHOUA

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022

He’s also taken to responding to criticism with a singular response:

$8

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022

At Twitter HQ, laughs may be in short supply following reports that Musk plans to eliminate about 3 700 jobs at Twitter Inc., which is roughly half the company’s workforce.

Employees will be told today, with Musk also set to do away with the company’s remote working policies.

It’s one thing to fire me, but how dare you expect me to come to the office five days a week!

[sources:aljazeera&businsidersa]