Musk pushes Twitter Blue subscription and dogecoin payments days after becoming top shareholder
Elon Musk, now Twitter's biggest shareholder, has suggested a raft of changes to the social media giant's Twitter Blue premium subscription service, including slashing its price, banning advertising and giving users an option to pay in the cryptocurrency dogecoin.
The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who disclosed a 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter just days ago, was subsequently offered a seat on its board of directors.
The move made some Twitter employees panic over the platform's future and its ability to moderate content.
Twitter Blue, launched in June 2021, is Twitter's first subscription service and offers "exclusive access to premium features" on a monthly subscription basis, Twitter says.
It is available in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
In a Twitter post, Musk suggested that users who sign up for Twitter Blue should pay significantly less than the current $2.99 (€2.75) a month, and should get an authentication checkmark as well as an option to pay in local currency.
"And no ads," Musk suggested. "The power of corporations to dictate policy is greatly enhanced if Twitter depends on advertising money to survive".
Musk also proposed an option to pay with dogecoin and asked Twitter users for their views.
Twitter declined to comment on Musk's suggestions.
The company already lets people tip their favourite content creators using bitcoin.
Twitter had said last year that it planned to support authentication for NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, which are digital assets such as images or videos that exist on a blockchain.
Musk, a prolific Twitter user, is known for his provocative comments, and his tweets often move markets.
The billionaire also started a poll on his Twitter account - which has more than 81
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