New York (PTI): Twitter's new owner billionaire Elon Musk announced that the verification blue tick in front of a user's name that authenticates the account will now be available at a price of eight dollars per month.

Musk blasted the "current lords and peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark, using an expletive.

Power to the people! Blue for USD 8 per month, he tweeted adding that the price is adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity.

With that price, he said, users will also get priority in replies, mentions, and searches, which he said is essential to defeating spam/scams, as well as the ability to post long video and audio, half as many ads, and paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with the social media company.

He said the monthly payments from users for the blue tick will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators.

A blue tick signifies that a particular account is verified because it's notable in government, news, entertainment, or another designated category.

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Udupi: Udupi City Police have registered a case of online fraud after a 62-year-old hotel chef was allegedly cheated of Rs 1.13 lakh by a woman who befriended him on WhatsApp, claiming to be based in London.
The victim, identified as Pandu Kariappa Poojary, a resident of Kuthpadi in Udupi, was working at a hotel in Mangaluru.

He reportedly came into contact with a woman identifying herself as Emilda William on WhatsApp. During their interactions, she told Poojary that she planned to start a cosmetics and hotel business in India and would meet him during a visit to Mangaluru.
On April 7, Emilda sent Poojary a flight ticket from London to Delhi via WhatsApp. The following day, Poojary received a phone call from a woman who informed him that Emilda had arrived at Delhi airport carrying a demand draft worth Rs 5 crore along with other items. The caller allegedly asked him to pay Rs 70,000.
Subsequently, Poojary also received a call from Emilda, who was reportedly crying and spoke about the situation. Believing the claims, he transferred a total of Rs 1,13,300 in phases using a scanner. He later realised that he had been cheated.