Instead of using the iconic blue check mark to identify public personalities, Twitter is changing it to indicate that you have paid Elon Musk $8.
However, the emblem is obviously pointless if anyone with an extra $8 and a fragile ego can get verified, allowing trolls to focus heavily on impersonation jokes.
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX discovered this personally, and as a result, Twitter is creating an “official” badge as an alternative to the blue check for user authentication.
A lot of folks have asked about how you’ll be able to distinguish between @TwitterBlue subscribers with blue checkmarks and accounts that are verified as official, which is why we’re introducing the “Official” label to select accounts when we launch. pic.twitter.com/0p2Ae5nWpO
— Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) November 8, 2022
“Not all previously verified accounts will get the ‘Official’ label and the label is not available for purchase,” explained product manager Esther Crawford in a tweet. “Accounts that will receive it include government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers, and some public figures.”
For the roughly 200 million creatures of habit that log onto the bird app every day, the official emblem appears to essentially represent what blue checks used to signify.
“The new Twitter Blue does not include ID verification — it’s an opt-in, paid subscription that offers a blue checkmark and access to select features,” Crawford continued in a Twitter thread. “We’ll continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between account types.”
Nima Owji, an app researcher, discovered this feature in development less than a week ago as Twitter’s remaining team scrambled to meet tight deadlines.
#Twitter is working on another badge for the notable people. pic.twitter.com/VBVnEf5NuJ
— Nima Owji (@nima_owji) November 3, 2022
Initially, Twitter had planned to launch its new system, in which anyone can purchase a blue check for themselves, on Monday.
To prevent abuse, the implementation was postponed until after Tuesday’s midterm elections in the United States.
According to reports, the action was taken to lessen the potential consequences of verified users pretending to be news organizations or political personalities and reporting erroneous results that would dissuade others from casting ballots.
To read our blog on “Twitter non-paying users should be banned, Elon Musk,” click here.