Twitter CEO Elon Musk has disclosed plans to launch different colors of verification badges for company and government accounts on the micro-blogging platform.
Musk announced that government accounts will have a grey-colored verification badge, while company accounts will have a gold color verification badge, also noting that the blue-colored badge will still be used for individual accounts.
The Twitter CEO had earlier suspended the $8 payment for the ‘blue tick’ badge, which he disclosed was necessitated until there is high confidence of stopping impersonation.
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He however disclosed that the launch of its verified service will hold next week Friday, noting that accounts on the platform will be easily distinguished by the colour of their badge.
He wrote on Twitter, “Sorry for the delay, we’re tentatively launching Verified on Friday next week.
“Gold check for companies, grey check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not) and all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates. Painful but necessary”.
Musk stated that others would display a secondary tiny logo showing they belong to an organization if verified as such by that organization.
The paid blue tick verification badge on the platform was earlier free for some individuals who were popular personalities, and organisations.
However, after Musk’s acquisition of the platform, in a bid to diversify the company’s source of revenue, he had to introduce the $8 payment fee for the verification badge.
Despite facing backlash over proposals to charge for the feature, Musk still went ahead with the plan. He justified his plans to charge for the verification badge, by tweeting “we need to pay the bills somehow”, also adding that it was the only way to “defeat the bots and trolls”
In a Twitter thread, Musk said subscribers of the new Blue service would also get priority in replies, mentions and search. Users will also see half as many adverts and will be able to post long video and audio clips. No timing for the changes was announced.
The blue tick verification process was introduced on the platform in 2009, in a response to celebrity concerns about impersonation after it was slammed with a lawsuit for not doing enough to prevent the platform from imposters and parody accounts.