Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got into a spat with Elon Musk – on Twitter, of course – over Mr Musk’s plan to charge Twitter users $8 per month for a verified subscription.
“Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that ‘free speech’ is actually a $8/mo subscription plan,” the New York Congresswoman tweeted on Tuesday.
Several hours later, Mr Musk responded:
Musk initially said he would charge $19.99 for a blue check mark on the platform, which has previously been free and is a stamp of authenticity on user accounts.
Under heavy criticism, the world’s richest man then said he planned to lower the fee to $8 during a back-and-forth with author Stephen King.
“We need to pay the bills somehow,” he tweeted at King on Monday. “Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?”
He later added: “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bulls***. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.”
He added that subscribers would get priority in replies, mentions and search, along with the ability to post longer video and audio content while seeing half as many ads as non-paying users.
Musk has overseen a chaotic few days at Twitter since he competed his $44bn takeover deal last week.
He fired the social networking site’s top executives, dissolved the board, walked back a pledge to allow free speech to reign, and announced he would appoint an “independent council” to rule on the thorny issue of content moderation.
Musk has sought to appease some pro-Maga accounts, promising to “look into” their complaints about shadow bans and lost followers.
He also promoted a fake conspiracy theory about the attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
As hate speech on the platform has risen dramatically since Musk assumed control, advertisers have signalled they could walk away.
In a possible sign the takeover is not going according to plan, Musk changed his Twitter bio from “Chief Twit” to “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator”.
