Ever since the micro-blogging platform Twitter has been acquired by Elon Musk, the social media platform has been going through various intense changes every day. Recently there was an update for Twitter, where it introduced an “Official Label” for select verified accounts. However, hours after it went official, the update was rolled back as Twitter announced it won’t be giving any “Official” label on accounts anymore.
Earlier, Twitter made a decision to give an “Official” label to give a second verification label to limit confusion between legitimate accounts and those who paid to get blue ticks. It added some grey labels to prominent accounts on Wednesday, wherein brands like Coca-Cola, Nike, and Apple got labels to prove that they are authentic. A few hours later, these labels started vanishing. This is when an American YouTuber Marques Brownlee tweeted screenshots confirming that the label just disappeared to which Elon Musk replied, “I just killed it”. He also mentioned that Blue check will be a great leveler.
Talking about the constant changes that Twitter is undergoing, Elon Musk tweeted, “Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works and change what doesn’t.” Esther Crawford who is in in-charge of the Twitter Blue revamp said that the Official label will still be available but only to the government and business institutions at first rather than private users.
The new Twitter Blue does not require ID verification but is an opt-in, paid subscription that includes a blue checkmark as well as access to select features.
Twitter’s current verification system has been in place since 2009 and was created to ensure high-profile and public-facing accounts are who they say they are. There are currently about 423,000 verified accounts on Twitter currently. Many of these belong to celebrities, businesses, and politicians, but a large chunk of them are believed to be individual journalists. There have been concerns about the checkmark being available to anyone for a fee could lead to impersonations and the spreading of misinformation and scams. This is trying to be checked in the new version.
