You can buy a blue tick with a Twitter Blue subscription, but some accounts and organizations will get a gray one as well.

Twitter is introducing an additional type of verification to help distinguish accounts if users really need to know if they’re real. Users who paid $7.99 for Twitter Blue will receive a blue tick, and some government, company, or public figure accounts will also receive a gray tick (actually, it’s technically white).

So now there’s two verified checks. One that shows next to your profile in replies, in retweets, and everywhere else: It means you’re a Twitter Blue subscriber.

The other one (“Official”) only shows up on certain profiles and on tlmeline…… pic.twitter.com/qXZ1lfxFIc

— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) November 9, 2022

“Many people have been asking how to distinguish Twitter Blue followers with blue checkmarks from accounts that are verified as official — for them we are ticking Official,” says Esther Crawford of Twitter, who is leading the new Blue initiative.

The gray checkmark labeled “Official” is for government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers, and certain public figures. This does not mean that accounts will automatically receive it – Twitter will contact to confirm those who should receive it.

Crawford shared a screenshot of the checkmark on her @Twitter account page, but no such checkmark actually exists on the account yet (which isn’t too surprising considering Twitter Blue is reportedly launching on November 9th).

Not all previously verified accounts will get the “Official” label and the label is not available for purchase. Accounts that will receive it include government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures.

— Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) November 8, 2022

It is also not clear whether the checkmark will be visible in the general feed, or whether it will be shown only in the profile.

Ever since Elon Musk announced that anyone could get Twitter Blue for $8 a month , there have been concerns that blue checkmarks will no longer fulfill their primary function: preventing accounts from being impersonated by another person.

Musk himself has already suffered from this, after which he announced that anyone who impersonates another person without identifying himself as a parody will be banned forever.

However, this tactic is investigative, not proactive; if someone sets their sights on spreading misinformation, they potentially have the ability to do so before the moderators intervene. Twitter seems to understand this on some level, given the launch of the new checkmark and the recent decision to delay the rollout of the new verification system until the US midterm elections .

Elon Musk discussed the idea of making Twitter paid for all users – The Verge

Source: The Verge