Amid all the chaos around Twitter's $8 Blue service, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has devised another plan for the subscription model that is likely to be rolled out in the coming weeks. He says, there will be 3 check marks from now on - Gold, Grey and also the Blue- to identify different kinds of users on the social media platform.
This comes days after the new Twitter boss halted the roll-out of $8 Blue plan owing to issues like impersonation and fake accounts. However, he had stated that the blue check subscription service will be relaunched by end of November noting it to be a minor delay from his initial tentative timeline.
Instead of the blue checkmarks for all, Musk explains that from now on, different users will get different checkmarks. For example, companies will get the gold check, grey check for governments, and blue for individuals (celebrities or not).
He calls it to be a ‘painful, but necessary’ measure.
To explain this, Musk said, all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before the check is activated.
"Individuals can have a secondary tiny logo to show they belong to an organization if verified as such by that organization," Musk said in another tweet, adding that he will give a longer explanation next week.
Even before Musk had officially announced his Blue subscription model, Twitter's trust and safety team prepared a seven-page list of recommendations for him to explain its damaging consequences.
Noting the risks, the officials said, there could be threats related to fake accounts and impersonation.
They also said Blue debadging (unless paid) and its related privileges might drive away high-profile users from the platform for good. “Removing privileges and exemptions from legacy verified accounts could cause confusion and loss of trust among high profile users," they wrote.
Apart from that, the team warned that Twitter has no automated way to remove verified badges from user accounts. The team identified, “to debadge a large number of legacy verified accounts if they decide not to pay for Blue, this will require high operational lift without investment. "
The blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures.
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