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Things are happening fast over at Twitter ever since Elon Musk took over. It’s up for debate if that’s a good thing, but here we are. In the latest development, Twitter decided to ditch the ‘Official’ label mere hours after its initial rollout.
Twitter decided to ditch the ‘Official’ label hours after its initial rollout
This seemed like a bad idea to many users, and it seems like Elon Musk realized it was a mistake. The idea was to add a second form of verification in the form of a gray ‘Official’ label. Why? Well, because Elon Musk decided to charge $8 for Twitter Blue, and offer a Blue verification checkmark to everyone who pays up.
So, that enables basically anyone to get that Blue checkmark, and the ‘Official’ label was supposed to help people differentiate official accounts from unofficial ones. Many people found this approach lackluster and confusing, though.
Musk: “Blue check will be the great leveler”
Well, it seems like Elon Musk realized it as well. Mere hours after the rollout started, Elon Musk decided to drop it. He literally said “I just killed it”, while adding that the “Blue check will be the great leveler”.
I just killed it
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022
The official ‘Twitter Support’ account joined the party by saying that Twitter is “aggressively going after impersonation and deception”.
We’re not currently putting an “Official” label on accounts but we are aggressively going after impersonation and deception.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 9, 2022
Elon Musk promised a lot of changes are coming
Elon Musk didn’t stop there. He promised more changes are coming, by saying that Twitter “will do many dumb things in the coming months”, but stick to what works.
Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months.
We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022
We can expect more changes to the verification process, that’s for sure. The new Twitter Blue does not require ID verification, only a payment, which may create problems of all kinds. If anyone can get that checkmark, and that will be “the great leveler” as Musk said, that could be an issue.
It is possible that Twitter will make changes to that approach after all. Allowing everyone who is a paying customer to get verified, while not properly verifying people could present a problem. We’ll see how Twitter plans to tackle this.