Twitter quickly erases gray checkmark

The Future. Twitter’s checkmark fiasco is confounding users, angering advertisers, and sowing general discord… and it doesn’t look like the changes are stopping anytime soon. The confusion around knowing which accounts are the actual accounts of brands (and not hilarious, but troubling parodies) could be a major reason why advertisers are pausing spending on the platform.

Leveling era
Twitter’s verification strategies are getting deleted faster than a problematic tweet.

• The platform’s new blue checkmark — which users now have to pay $8 for — debuted yesterday, which publications like Bloomberg and CNN said they wouldn’t pay for.
• With the blue checkmark rollout devolving into copycat chaos, Musk conceded that it may have been “a dumb decision, but we’ll see.”
• It also debuted an “Official” gray checkmark for notable, high-profile figures (essentially, it was the old blue checkmark), but Musk “killed it” within the day, wanting blue checks to be the “great leveler.”

With Musk himself being trolled by blue checks and the new Blue subscription actually reducing the amount of advertising being shown on the platform overall, don’t be surprised if Musk actually goes through with his idea of putting all of Twitter behind a paywall to cover its massive debt load.

As Musk tweeted yesterday, “Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works and change what doesn’t.”