Twitter adds ‘official’ sign to high profile, corporate verified accounts

On Wednesday, companies such as Nike, Apple and Coca-Cola, as well as media outlets such as The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, received an official designation.

For users who do not pay the monthly fee, the site’s current method of using “blue checks” to verify the authenticity of an account will soon be phased out.

Anyone willing to pay the $7.99 monthly subscription will have access to the checkmark at a later date. This subscription will come with additional benefits such as fewer ads and the ability to tweet from subscribers to gain more visibility than non-subscribers.

The platform’s current verification process, which was developed to ensure that high-profile and publicly visible accounts are exactly what they claim to be, has been in place since 2009.

The availability of the checkmark to anyone for a fee has raised concerns among experts, who fear it could encourage impersonation, the spread of false information, and scams. The gray label is an obvious compromise because it blends into the background whether you scroll through Twitter in light or dark mode.

less pronounced “official” The designation may cause more confusion, as Twitter users used to check blue as a sign of authenticity will now need to see it.

According to Esther Crawford, a Twitter employee working on the verification overhaul, the “official” tag will be added to “select accounts” when the new system is rolled out.

“Not all previously verified accounts will receive the ‘official’ label and the label is not available for purchase,” said Crawford, who recently shared a viral photo of him sleeping on the floor of a Twitter office while working to meet Musk. was the subject. time limit.

According to Crawford, government accounts, for-profit businesses, business partners, important media outlets, publishers and some public figures are among those receiving the label.

There are approximately 423,000 verified accounts in the current system. Many of them are the property of public figures, corporations, government agencies and media organizations.

However, a large proportion of verified accounts are from individual journalists, some of whom have modest audiences on regional newspapers and news websites around the world. Its purpose was to verify journalists so that false information could not be spread Twitter using their identity.

Musk previously proposed using a method other than blue checks when designating official accounts.

(with inputs from PTI)