Twitter will issue an ‘official’ label for these Verified Accounts
Elon Musk’s social network Twitter will introduce an “Official” label for select verified accounts including major media outlets and the government when it launches its new $8 product, its chief product officer Esther Crawford said Tuesday.
Crawford also confirmed that the improved Twitter Blue registration product, which will allow paid users to carry blue checkmarks on their accounts, will not actually verify the identity of users.
The lack of identity verification is likely to raise concerns about the possibility of people impersonating the public.
Already, such concerns have caused Twitter to pause to introduce a new version of Twitter Blue until the end of the mid-term elections in the US on Tuesday, on Twitter Yoel Roth, the head of security and integrity at Twitter.
Fake accounts of government officials are an ongoing problem on Twitter around the world, according to sources familiar with the matter and researchers.
Not all previously verified Twitter accounts with a blue checkmark will receive the “Official” label, and the label is not available for purchase, Crawford said.
Accounts that will receive the official label include governments, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and other famous people, he wrote on Twitter.
Introducing the new label alongside existing verification marks “creates a confusing system” where some, but not all, previously verified accounts will be considered legitimate, said Jason Goldman, a former Twitter board member who served as head of product at its inception. years. years.
“It’s a mess,” he said.
The official label comes after internal pressure from Twitter’s policy executives, who had strong concerns about government officials around the world being unlikely and unwilling to pay for certified test scores, another source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Twitter, which has lost several members of its communications team, did not respond to a request for further comment.
Crawford added on Tuesday that Twitter will “continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between account types.”
© Thomson Reuters 2022
