In something of a drama on Twitter, Elon Musk on Wednesday killed the gray “official” verification badge after rolling it out to some users, including India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other government officials, saying the blue check will be the great leveler of the platform .
Twitter previously started giving gray badges to government officials and public figures around the world, including in India, but later reversed the change. “I just killed it,” Musk tweeted to one user.
“Blue Check will be the big leveler,” he added. Musk said Twitter will do a lot of stupid things in the coming months. “We will keep what works and change what doesn’t work,” the new Twitter CEO posted. (Also read: Gmail Gets BIG Update; Users Won’t Be Able to Do THIS)
A user who received the “Official” badge posted: “Update: It’s gone now”. Previously, Twitter had begun labeling Indian government handles and Indian media as “official” before rolling out blue badge subscriptions across the country.
The Prime Minister’s office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official Twitter account and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s Twitter account carried the “official label”. Within hours, those official labels were gone.
Esther Crawford, head of the new Twitter Blue service, had said select government, business or public figure-related accounts would be given a gray “Official” tick to separate them from other users.
The new Twitter Blue service offers fewer ads, search priority, the ability to post longer videos, and a blue badge. Musk has confirmed that the new $8 Twitter Blue subscription service will be available in India in less than a month.
