Elon Musk announces $8 monthly charge for verified Twitter accounts

Elon Musk said the premium version of Twitter, called Blue, will cost $8 a month and will include a verified check mark for paying users’ accounts.

This comes after a series of criticisms of his plan to charge Twitter users $19.99 a month to get or keep a verified account.

Musk, who acquired the social network for $44 billion last week, said these Blue users would also get priority in replies, mentions, and Twitter search, and half as many ads. They would also have the ability to bypass paywalls for “publishers willing to work with…