Twitter’s answer to the blue tick issue was to add a second, ugly tick

Since Elon Musk became CEO two weeks ago, Twitter has modified the blue tick verification process three times. The most recent adjustment makes people wonder what a Twitter Blue subscription is for while bringing the system a little closer to what verification meant prior to Musk taking over.

Soon after seizing control of the platform, Musk declared that users would be able to become verified for $20 per month, however author Stephen King was able to negotiate a price reduction to $8:

We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022

In addition to making it harder to determine whether you are receiving information from a reliable source, this also makes it harder to determine whether a person is who they say they are. What prevents someone from purchasing a blue tick, which once signified that an identification check had been conducted, and then posing as someone else?

Elon Musk offered one remedy after several blue tick accounts used his persona to draw attention to this issue: banning all parody accounts that don’t make it apparent they’re parody accounts.

Twitter has since come up with a second, even worse tick as a fix.

Early stage products executive Esther Crawford tweeted about the new badge, saying it will help users distinguish between “accounts that are verified as official” and Twitter Blue subscribers who already have the tick next to their name.

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

The new official label won’t be offered for purchase.

Government accounts, commercial businesses, business partners, significant media outlets, publishers, and some public figures are among the accounts that will receive it, according to Crawford. She continued by saying that while ID verification will be an opt-in for Twitter Blue, it was necessary to receive the blue tick badge.

“We’ll keep experimenting with new techniques to distinguish across account kinds.”

While the action proves what verification done prior to the takeover, others have questioned what Twitter Blue’s purpose is.

So, an emoji appears next to your name? a Twitter user enquired. What does it mean except the fact that you bought Twitter Blue?

so it's an emoji next to your name? what does it signify other than you paid for twitter blue?

— David Mack (@davidmackau) November 8, 2022