Elon Musk remains determined on $8 blue tick fee; 'Trash me all day, but it'll cost $8'

As Tesla CEO and new owner of Twitter Elon Musk faces criticism from some people for his $8 for Twitter blue tick plan and his decision to fire nearly half of Twitter's staff, he remains determined to go ahead with his plan. "Trash me all day, but it'll cost $8," he tweeted, signalling that he is not going to back down.

Earlier, an American politician named Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who belongs to the Democrat party, attempted to mock Elon Musk for charging $8. Instead of being successful in mocking the Tesla CEO, she herself ended up getting mocked and ridiculed. "Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8," wrote Musk. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, or AOC, as she is commonly called, claims to be a defender of the working class and portrays herself as part of some downtrodden group. In a separate tweet, Musk posted a screenshot of her website, pointing out the fact that she charges $58 for a regular sweatshirt with her name on it. She has also been criticised in the past for owning a Tesla whilst claiming to be 'working class'. 

Musk's ownership of Twitter, a political issue?

Elon Musk's ownership has become a political issue with most supporters of the Republican party cheering Musk and most supporters of the Democrat party criticising Musk. The polarisation sharpened when Musk responded to a tweet by Hillary Clinton with an article from a controversial website. Twitter has also witnessed a downturn in its ad revenue, according to Musk's own admission. He has blamed the pressure tactics of activists for this downturn, informing everyone on Twitter that they are the reason advertisers are suspending ads on Twitter. 

"Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America," wrote Musk. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, General Mills, Audi, Pfizer, General electrics are some of the firms who have suspended their ads on Twitter. Speaking on the topic of mass layoffs at Twitter, Musk wrote, "Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day. Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required," in an attempt to clarify.