Twitter is introducing a new gray checkmark on users’ profiles, but what is it, and how does it work? Twitter’s blue verification badge has been in the news over the past few weeks, but for all the wrong reasons. The badge has always been a source of controversy, with people often complaining about the lack of transparency on how it is doled out to users. It became an even bigger source of controversy over the past couple of weeks after the new owner, Elon Musk, proposed an $8 monthly subscription fee for users to get that badge.
Twitter has seen multiple changes since Musk’s takeover last month, starting with the site’s revamped Home page for logged-out users. Another significant change was the summary firing of several members of Twitter’s top management team, including CEO Parag Agarwal, before the company laid off nearly 50 percent of its workforce last Friday. Musk also announced that Twitter would permanently ban impersonators if those accounts are not clearly labeled as parodies.
With confusion reigning supreme about how Twitter’s new verification scheme will work, the company’s product executive Esther Crawford has revealed that some originally verified accounts will now get an ‘Official’ badge with a gray checkmark to tell them apart from Twitter Blue subscribers with blue checkmarks. However, according to Crawford, not all previously verified accounts will get the new badge, which will only be given to government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures. Furthermore, unlike the blue badge, it will not be available for purchase.
Twitter Introducing New Verification Method
Crawford also shared a mockup screenshot of what the ‘Official’ badge would look like on Twitter and said that the blue checkmark would no longer require ID verification. Instead, it will be part of an “opt-in, paid subscription that offers … access to select features.” Crawford also said that the company will “continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between account types.”
The new announcement goes directly against Musk’s assertion that making the blue badge purchasable would democratize Twitter and end the “lords and peasants system” he accused the company of implementing. With the new system, the blue badge is set to lose most of its prestige, while the gray ‘Official’ checkmark will now become the new ‘Verified’ badge and will be the most coveted thing on the platform. If the new verification method is implemented, the ‘lords and peasants system’ will be alive and well on Twitter, albeit in a new gray avatar.
