When business mogul Elon Musk became Twitter"s new owner, one of the things he immediately did was to revamp the platform"s Twitter Blue subscription. Under the new version, users can get a verified checkmark on their account when they pay $8 monthly, among other benefits.
The company, however, seems to be aware that giving verified checkmarks to everyone can get confusing. So to help users distinguish accounts that have been verified via Twitter Blue and accounts that are verified as official, the company is introducing the "Official" label to select accounts.
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
According to Esther Crawford, director of product management at Twitter, the "Official" tag is not available for purchase. Accounts that will receive this checkmark include government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures. She also says that Twitter Blue does not include ID verification.
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. We’ll continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between account types.
— Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) November 8, 2022
Ironically, the account tweeting as Esther Crawford is not verified in any way, and has no "Official" tag. However, the account"s tweet history shows that the owner is indeed Crawford herself. She even acknowledged the time she went viral for sleeping at Twitter HQ last week.
Many Twitter users have found the new system confusing, as it defeats Elon Musk"s goal to get rid of what he calls a "lords and peasants system."
A few days ago, "Chief Twit" Elon Musk stated that Twitter will permanently ban impersonator accounts that don"t indicate that they are a parody account.
Source: Esther Crawford on Twitter