Elon Musk is launching blue, gold and gray Twitter ticks
Topics: Elon Musk, Twitter, Social Media
Anish Vij
Featured Image Credit: David Branson / Zuma Press / Alamy
Topics: Elon Musk, Twitter, Social Media
Elon Musk has dropped another bombshell for Twitter users as the new boss continues to put his own stamp on the platform.
Despite mass staff walk-outs and share price struggles, the world's richest man is clearly pretty confident he can turn things around.
After charging users for 'blue tick privileges', he has now announced that there will be multiple versions of the Twitter verification tick.
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Musk was called out by Robert Reich, Berkeley professor, former Secretary of Labor, who tweeted: "Here's what Elon Musk fails to understand: "Much of a corporations' value lies in their workers — their knowledge, skills, and ideas.
"When he fired half of Twitter’s workforce and drove off even more, he wasn't 'cutting costs'.
"He was actively destroying what he bought."
Elon then hit back in the most Elon way possible: "Interesting … now pay $8."
Crypto King then got in on the action and said: "Elon, I’m trying. It won’t let me and I’m Verified (need to edit 1 character I can’t spell)."
Musk then revealed the new changes in his response: "Sorry for the delay, we’re tentatively launching Verified on Friday next week.
"Gold check for companies, grey check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not) and all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates.
"Painful, but necessary."
Michael Saylor, Founder & Executive Chairman of Micro Strategy, wasn't totally sold.
"Distinguishing between companies, governments, & individuals makes sense, but we still need a way to tell the difference (at a glance) between public figures and the multitude of individuals who have (or choose to use) the exact same name on Twitter. Otherwise confusion results," he tweeted.
The Twitter boss then replied: "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 shall see how it goes."
He also explained: "All verified individual humans will have same blue check, as boundary of what constitutes 'notable' is otherwise too subjective.
"Individuals can have secondary tiny logo showing they belong to an org if verified as such by that org.
"Longer explanation next week."
Musk shocked the Twitter world after announcing that he would charge users $8 (£6.97) for the coveted blue tick.
His explanation: "Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is b******t.
"Power to the people! Blue for $8/month. Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity. Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam
"Ability to post long video & audio. Half as many ads. And paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us.
"This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators."