Now that the infamous blue verification mark on Twitter can be bought by anyone willing to pay $7.99 a month with Twitter Blue’s revamped subscription, the company is introducing a different checkmark for ‘official’ accounts.
Select accounts for governments, companies, major media outlets, business partners or public figures will now get a grey ‘official’ checkmark as announced by Esther Crawford, head of the new Twitter Blue initiative. The platform will be deciding what accounts get this new label and previously being verified doesn’t automatically guarantee the label as well.
An example of the new label can be seen in the screenshot of the profile page for the official Twitter account shared by Crawford in her thread but it’s not on the actual page yet. Considering the new Twitter Blue is launching on November 9, it’s just a matter of time before it appears.
It’s unclear at the moment whether or not the label will only be visible when visiting a profile or will be mentioned alongside the profile name much like the existing blue verification mark.
Twitter has seen a flurry of changes since Musk took over. In his short reign so far there have been mass layoffs, attempts to get said lay offs back, changes to the verification system as well as content and moderation policies as well as a whole new Twitter Blue initiative.
Management does however seem to understand that offering a verification mark to anyone willing to pay money can be problematic. Musk has already announced that any accounts impersonating an official or public figure without clearly stating that they’re a parody will be permanently banned from the platform. Twitter Blue’s new launch was also pushed from November 7 to 9 in anticipation of the US midterm elections.
However, how these new changes will affect the platform and whether or not they’ll be effective in combating the fake and bot account problem as Musk so staunchly believes remains to be seen.
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