Nadeem Sarwar / SlashGear
Elon Musk finally has a plan to save the doomed account verification system at Twitter, one that he demolished by selling the blue tick mark for anyone willing to pay $8 per month. The latest idea is to color code the tick mark badge according to account owner type. It would be displayed in a golden color for accounts belonging to companies, rather than the usual blue for all verified accounts.
Shortly after Musk took over as Twitter’s new CEO, he disparaged the old verification system for its “lords and peasants” approach. The solution? It should be freely available to all users who pay an $8/month subscription fee for Twitter Blue. What’s the problem? Musk eliminated the mandatory identity verification protocol that was used to verify people who were lining up to get a blue verification badge. As many expected, the flawed system led to bad actors purchasing verified badges for parody accounts that impersonated legitimate accounts.
Sorry for the delay, weaEUR(tm)re tentatively launching Verified on Friday next week.
Gold check to companies, grey check government, blue check individuals (celebrity and not), and all verified accounts will need to be manually authenticated before check activates.
Painful but necessary.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2022
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly lost about $15 billion in its market value after an impersonator account with a verified badge tweeted “free insulin” and set the industry on fire (per Gizmodo). In the wake of the disaster, Musk quickly cancelled the Twitter Blue-associated account verification plans. There was also the temporary “Official” badge that was available for accounts verified in pre-Musk times. This allowed people to distinguish between accounts that were legitimately entitled to a verified badge based upon their importance and those who paid $8.
Noble plan, but lacks teeth
Nadeem Sarwar / SlashGear
Musk appears to have learned the lesson from the verification fiasco, and now has a fresh plan. All verified accounts will be categorized and identified using the badge color. Musk stated that accounts belonging to the “government” (most likely government offices or officials) will be identified with a gray checkmark. Accounts owned by companies will be distinguished with a gold tick mark. Accounts belonging to individuals will retain the blue color.
Now, Musk clarifies that the blue badge will be universally applied to individuals, whether they are a “celebrity or not.” Musk clarifies that the blue badge will be applied to all individuals, regardless of whether they are celebrities or not. This seems like a temporary solution. Musk wants to visually protect government accounts and brand accounts using a bright badge that is easily identifiable.
Deliberate impersonation/deception will result in account suspension.
Organizational affiliation, bio and follower count distinguish between people who genuinely have the exact same name.
We’ll see how it goes.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2022
However, it again leaves personal accounts at risk of impersonation without any visual cue for users to easily identify the real one from a fake verified account. Musk claims that deliberate impersonation will lead to a permanent ban. But, what if the damage is already done? In the past, Musk’s account was hacked to sell crypto scams. Accessibility problems with color-coded badges are another problem. People with color blindness or other ocular issues will find this solution inconvenient.