Elon Musk abruptly scraps Twitter 'official' checkmark hours after launch

Twitter
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Gray checkmarks are the new blue checkmarks — or at least, they were for a few hours.

Twitter on Wednesday launched a new kind of checkmark for high-profile accounts: A gray "official" label, which Twitter director of product management Esther Crawford said would be applied to accounts of "government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures." It was a response to concerns over owner Elon Musk's plan to give a verified blue checkmark to anyone who pays for Twitter Blue, which experts feared could lead to the spread of misinformation. Crawford said the new labels would help users distinguish between Blue subscribers "and accounts that are verified as official" — which was originally the purpose of the blue checkmark.

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.