Twitter's new “Official” verified badges -- or gray check marks -- stayed up on the microblogging platform for a mere three hours before vanishing.
“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.
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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.