Twitter will implement a two-tier certification. An “Official” label will be added to some accounts.
The new certification system for Twitter will finally offer two different levels. Esther Crawford, VP of Twitter Blue subscription, confirmed that in addition to adding the blue checkmark, the company will use an “official” label for certain accounts.
Twitter will implement a two-tier certification
This label had been seen on internal versions of Twitter before, but this is the first time someone within the company has confirmed its existence. Twitter, which recently laid off the majority of its communications team, declined to comment on this information.
According to Esther Crawford, the “official” label will be reserved for “government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media, publishers and certain public figures”. No one currently knows precisely how Twitter will designate eligible accounts, or whether they will have to go through an additional verification process. “All accounts already certified will not be entitled to the ‘Official’ label and the latter is not available for sale”, tweeted Esther Crawford.
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
An “Official” label will be added to some accounts
This initiative seems to respond to some criticism that has emerged following the intentions of Elon Musk with regard to certification and Twitter Blue. Paying for certification would open the door to scammers of all kinds, which would only increase harassment, scams and the spread of misinformation. Esther Crawfod isn’t the first Twitter executive to address the issue. Yoel Roth, head of integrity at the company, also said that Twitter intends to “increase investigations of Blue Certified accounts that show signs of abuse, including those impersonating for others.” Elon Musk himself has said that all these imitation accounts will be banned without warning right after many users changed their name to Elon Musk on the platform.
This new label “Official” is in any case quite similar to the existing certification system at Twitter that Elon Musk and others have already called unfair. And the fact that it will only be given to certain accounts left to Twitter’s sole discretion suggests that the company, once again, will be alone in judging the “relevance” of an account, something that many company executives, including Yoel Roth, criticized it.
This “Official” label and extended certification should arrive in the coming days.
For years, Verification on Twitter has been tricky because it’s a signal both of authenticity (you are who you say you are) and notability (you’re “important” by some standard).
Notability is inherently difficult to determine in a fair way globally. I support getting rid of it.
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 8, 2022
