Turkey's Erdogan says he'll speak to Elon Musk over $8 Twitter 'blue tick' charge

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he may speak to new Twitter owner Elon Musk about the billionaire's plans to charge for its Blue check verification service.

Musk said after acquiring the company for $44 billion that he will begin charging verified blue check users $8 per month for the service.

"It might be different for us," Erdogan said in an interview with Turkey's ATV. "We could carry out some diplomacy with him as well," he joked.

Twitter already has a subscription plan, Twitter Blue, that for $5 a month lets users access extra features, such as the ability to undo a tweet and read ad-free articles.

Musk's plan, as it appears from his tweets, seems to be expanding it to charge more money for more features - including the verification badge - and spread it to more users.

“Of roughly 300,000 verified accounts on Twitter we would estimate only about 25% would go down this path ultimately and pay the $8 per month fee,” Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives told The Associated Press.

That would mean only $7.2 million a year in extra revenue for Twitter - not enough to move the dial for a company whose last reported quarterly revenue was $1.18 billion.

While Musk's exact plans are not clear, experts are raising concerns about the consequences of having a paid verification system that leaves anyone unwilling to pay vulnerable to impersonation.

It also leaves the possibility that anyone who does pay will have their Twitter presence boosted by the platform’s algorithms.

While many verified users on Twitter are famous, there are also community activists, journalists at small newspapers and outlets - inside and outside of the US - and regular people who simply find themselves in the news.