• by Todd Wasserman , April 25, 2023

Twitter is sowing confusion among advertisers for its insistence that all advertisers bear a verified checkmark on the platform.

Twitter last week eliminated the blue check marks it gave to journalists, public officials and celebrities. With those blue check marks gone, Twitter is doling out verification marks for paid users and businesses for $7.99 a month. According to a tweet by social media consultant Matt Navarra, Twitter says you must have a verified checkmark to continue running ads on Twitter -- unless your account spends more than $1,000 a month in advertising on Twitter, in which case you'll be able to do so automatically.

Twitter will offer verification marks such as gold check marks (for a company or organization), company affiliation marks (like logos), grey checkmarks for government officials, and others, including verified phone number badges and Twitter profile categories like “coffee shop” and “optician.”

Twitter is also restoring blue tick marks for certain verified accounts like the author Neil Gaiman, who tweeted on April 23, that “For the curious, I'm not subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven't given anyone my phone number. What a sad, muddled place this has become.”