Musk Kills Twitter Rollout of ‘Official’ Account Labels, Says Subscription-Only Blue Check-Mark Will Be ‘The Great Leveler’

It’s another day at Elon Musk‘s Twitter — and with it, another swift change in plans.

Musk abruptly nixed Twitter’s launch of “official” labels for verified real accounts, such as government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures. The company began rolling those out Wednesday before Musk, a few hours later, reversed the decision.

After YouTube creator Marques Brownlee noticed that the “official” tag had disappeared from his Twitter profile, Musk replied, “I just killed it.”

“Blue check will be the great leveler,” Musk tweeted. The mega-billionaire completed his $44 billion buyout of Twitter less than two weeks ago and fired 50% of the staff less than a week ago.

Musk is banking on generating subscription revenue by charging $7.99/month for Twitter Blue, which will include a blue-check mark designation (something Twitter previously applied for no charge to accounts the company deemed to be in “the public interest”). The more expensive version of Twitter Blue (previously $4.99/month) with the blue check-mark went live Wednesday. The new “official” tags were supposed to replace Twitter’s previous verification of high-profile accounts.

“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit,” Musktweetedon Nov. 1. “Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.”

For subscribers of the revised Twitter Blue plan, the blue check-mark will not mean that a Twitter account is verified in the way that it has been previously. According to Twitter director of product management Esther Crawford, the new Twitter Blue service “does not include ID verification — it’s an opt-in, paid subscription that offers a blue check-mark and access to select features,” she wrote in a thread Tuesday.

With the launch of Twitter Blue with “verification” Wednesday, the blue check-mark can mean two different things: either that an account was verified under the previous verification criteria (i.e., that it’s an active, notable and authentic account), or that the account has an active subscription to the new Twitter Blue subscription service. Clicking on a Twitter account’s blue check-mark badge will pull up a message that explains which “verified” status it has.

According to Twitter’s help page about verification, only accounts subscribed to Twitter Blue via Apple’s iOS on or after Nov. 9, 2022, are eligible for the blue check-mark moving forward. Twitter will no longer accept new applications for verification under the previous criteria.

Twitter’s help page also says that “to minimize impersonation risks, display name changes will be temporarily restricted on Verified accounts. This will impact accounts Verified under the legacy program and Twitter’s new Twitter Blue subscription product.”

Musk tweeted Wednesday, “Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.”