Twitter's New 'Official' Verification Badge Is Pulled Within Hours
- by Colin Kirkland , November 9, 2022
“I just killed it,” tweeted Twitter’s billionaire owner Elon Musk, responding to a tweet about the gray check disappearing. “Blue check will be the great leveler.”
Musk followed this statement with a declaration that Twitter will do "lots of dumb things” in the coming months.
Announced only on Tuesday night, the gray checks were originally meant to help Twitter users identify legitimate accounts for public figures, celebrities, news outlets, and additional high-profile users.
The gray check marks mirror the purpose of the original blue check, before Musk's announcement that it would cost $8 per month as part of the Twitter Blue subscription service.
Esther Crawford, who is leading the Twitter Blue update, tweeted that the gray “Official” check marks will continue to be part of the Twitter Blue rollout. However, they will be used primarily for “government and commercial entities” at first, not individual users.
Unlike the original blue check mark, the gray check mark will not be displayed on individual tweets. If a user wants to make sure they are communicating with the “official” Twitter account of a brand, celebrity, or politician, they will have to head back to the user's full profile.
“We’ll continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between account types,” Crawford said.
Confusion and indecision seems to paint Twitter’s current state with Musk at the helm. After firing nearly half of its employees via email last Friday, Twitter asked dozens of those fired back, reporting that some employees were fired by mistake and others were regrettably fired in lieu of overlooked skill sets.
In addition, the new Twitter Blue -- which was delayed to launch until after the U.S. midterms -- may feature an ad load slashed by about half -- a decision Musk made “at the last minute,” according to Platformer.
If an ad-light plan is enacted, Blue, sources say, may actually lose money.
Twitter, back in 2016, verifed members with "Tru Twit". I paid $20.00 for this same service. I don't recall if this was one time or once a year. Either way, I and likely hundreds of thousands of Twitter members paid this same amount. I believe under those terms of service, those who paid the Tru Twit $20.00 should be grandfathered and no charge should apply because we have already been verified.