Twitter will roll out a second verification label to limit confusion between legitimate accounts and ones that pay for their blue checks, a company executive said Tuesday.
Verified accounts will now come with an “Official” label beneath their username, complete with a gray verification checkmark, Twitter executive Esther Crawford said.
Crawford — who went viral last week after a coworker posted a picture of her sleeping on the Twitter headquarters conference room floor — said the label will help users distinguish between official accounts and the Twitter Blue subscription, which is taking over the blue check previously used for verified accounts.
“Not all previously verified accounts will get the ‘Official’ label and the label is not available for purchase,” Crawford said.
Official pages will be designated for “government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures,” she added.
It was not clear how the company would decide which accounts are designated as “official.”
The social media company will continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between “Official” and Twitter Blue accounts, Crawford said.
Twitter Blue, the subscription service that allows users to pay $8 per month for blue checks, is expected to roll out sometime soon. New CEO Elon Musk wanted to hold off from launching the new system until after Election Day to avoid confusion from potential accounts posing as officials or news outlets posting false information.
The new service will not require ID verification as the former verification process did.
“It’s an opt-in, paid subscription that offers a blue checkmark and access to select features,” according to Crawford.
Twitter Blue has received backlash from a slew of big names, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who called Musk a “union buster with an ego problem who pockets the change from underpaying and mistreating people” just days before he laid off roughly 3,700 employees.
“Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8,” Musk shot back.
Whoopi Goldberg and Shonda Rhimes have also vowed to quit the social media platform thanks to Musk’s takeover and reformatting, claiming his goal to restore “free speech” is instead creating a hostile environment.