Elon Musk announced that Twitter will introduce a new verification system with multicolored tags next week. They will be scrapping the initial rollout of the previous verification system, aka “power to the people” following a catastrophic initial launch.
On November 9, when the platform brought in the new verification mechanism, many user accounts started pretending to be popular brands, celebrities, and athletes – prompting Twitter to end the initiative immediately.
Now Twitter plans to launch its verified service with multicolored checks for people, organizations, and governments from next Friday onwards. Elon Musk, the CEO, issued colors to various categories: gold for organizations, gray for governments, and blue checks for individuals, including celebrities.
Musk mentioned that users can add a small second logo to their profile to display their connection to an organization. However, the organization must verify that the person truly represents or works for them. Elon also granted a blue tick to all personal accounts with legacy verification and those subscribed to Twitter’s premium plan, which costs $8 a month.
Before the revamped verification system goes live, Musk says the company intends to authenticate each verification manually. He added that before activating a blue tick, they will manually authenticate verified user accounts, calling the process “painful but necessary.” It will put the company’s reduced workforce under a lot of pressure to carefully examine every verification to avoid impersonation and spam.
As of last week, the newly created accounts shall have to wait 90 days from the date of account creation before purchasing a Twitter Blue subscription. It is applicable as a part of the company’s new modified terms.
Increasing Impersonation on Twitter
Musk halted the modified Twitter Blue scheme earlier this month but promised it would recommence from November 29 onwards. However, the CEO of Tesla & Twitter delayed this strategy this week until “there is a high level of stopping impersonation.” It was the first time he mentioned employing multiple colors to verify Twitter accounts.
He didn’t specify whether the relaunch of Twitter Blue and the deployment of this new authentication scheme will coincide. Since paid subscribers are not yet included in this verification relaunch, it is likely only applicable to already verified user accounts, organizations, and government officials.
Twitter took this measure after a user impersonating drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. claimed that insulin would be free. It led the company’s stock to sink from USD 368.72 to USD 352.30 and forced them to apologize publicly.
While the tweet from the parody account was taken down within six hours, it could not stop Eli Lilly from halting all of its ad campaigns on Twitter. Since Eli Lilly spends more than USD 100 million on TV and digital ads in the USA, it is speculated that the parody tweet may have cost Twitter significantly. However, the sources could not confirm the exact amount.
Many companies, including United Airlines (UAL.O) and General Motors (GM.N), paused and withdrew their ad campaigns from Twitter due to the turmoil. However, Musk says that Twitter’s user growth is at its all-time peak.
Furthermore, as a result of the poll he conducted a few days ago, Musk announced that Twitter would start offering “a general amnesty” to all suspended user accounts starting next week. Right now, Musk is making every effort to prevent a repeat of the parody chaos. Once Twitter Blue is finally reactivated, Twitter will take another step toward combating spam and fake user accounts.