Twitter brings back ‘Official’ tags: But, India will have to wait for it

Twitter has brought back "official" badges for prominent accounts in an effort to fight the issue of people impersonating well-known companies. On November 11, the grey badge reappeared below the listings for well-known companies and media organisations. Prior to being abandoned, the identification tag was implemented earlier this week.

“To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts,” Twitter Support tweeted on November 11.

India is not mentioned as one of the nations that are eligible for the tag. At the moment, labels are visible on pertinent Twitter accounts from China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Belarus, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates that are “Government accounts heavily engaged in geopolitics and diplomacy”, “State-affiliated media entities” and “Individuals, such as editors or journalists, associated with state-affiliated media entities”.

Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, said that he "killed" the new official label for verified Twitter accounts just hours after the feature had become available on multiple handles belonging to governments, politicians, authorities, and media organisations. On November 10, soon after the functionality was live, he dropped a hint that it wasn't actually functional. "I just killed it," he said in a tweet.

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The goal was to mark the accounts of well-known individuals, media organisations, and other stakeholders once changes to the platform's blue checkmarks went into effect.

Since Twitter started allowing paying customers to receive verified blue check marks, there have been an increasing number of fake accounts. While a fake Eli Lilly & Co. account tweeted that insulin was now free, requiring the corporation to issue an apology, another account acting as Nintendo Inc. released an image of Super Mario holding up a middle finger. A fictitious Tesla Inc. account made light of the automaker's track record for safety.

Elon Musk also tweeted on November 11 that all parody-related accounts must have "parody" in their names.

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Musk, the richest man in the world, purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October. He is currently dealing with a number of difficulties as prominent advertisers leave the platform due to uncertainty about the firm's capacity to combat fake accounts and hate speech.

In his first address to employees this week, Musk suggested that the company would go bankrupt, according to a prior report from Bloomberg News. Musk, who is also the Tesla CEO, has also witnessed resignations within his leadership team.