Twitter to introduce ‘Official’ label for some verified accounts By Reuters

By Sheila Dang and Fanny Potkin

(Reuters) -Billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform Twitter will introduce an “Official” label for choose verified accounts together with main media shops and governments when it launches its new $8 premium subscription product, its early stage merchandise government Esther Crawford mentioned on Tuesday.

Crawford additionally confirmed that the revamped Twitter Blue subscription product, which can enable paid customers to hold blue verify marks on their accounts, is not going to truly confirm customers’ identities.

The shortage of ID verification is more likely to increase issues about the opportunity of individuals impersonating public figures.

Already, such issues have precipitated Twitter to carry off on launching the brand new model of Twitter Blue till after the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday, tweeted Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of security and integrity.

Faux accounts for presidency officers are a recurring situation for Twitter globally, based on sources conversant in the matter and researchers.

Not all Twitter accounts that have been beforehand verified with a blue verify mark will get the “Official” label and the label will not be out there for buy, Crawford mentioned.

Accounts that can obtain the official label embody governments, business corporations, enterprise companions, main media shops, publishers and another public figures, she tweeted.

The introduction of a brand new label alongside the prevailing verify marks “creates a complicated system” the place some, however not all, beforehand verified accounts shall be deemed official, mentioned Jason Goldman, a former Twitter board member who served as head of product in its early years.

“It is a full mess,” he mentioned.

The official label comes after an inside push by Twitter coverage executives, who had robust issues about authorities officers world wide being unlikely and unwilling to pay for verified verify marks, one supply with data of the matter informed Reuters.

Twitter, which has misplaced many members of its communication workforce, didn’t reply to a request for additional remark.

Crawford added on Tuesday that Twitter will “proceed to experiment with methods to distinguish between account sorts.”