Elon Musk announced Twitter will “tentatively” make available its updated paid verification service to users next Friday.
Musk said that the platform will start adding a different color of check mark for verified users based on the type of account. Individuals will continue getting a blue check, while companies will have a gold check and government accounts will feature a gray one.
Musk added that the social media platform will “manually” authenticate every single verified account before applying the corresponding check mark.
“Painful, but necessary,” Musk wrote Friday.
Musk had previously paused the company’s new paid subscription service, which included verification, after several accounts who paid to be verified impersonated other users.
The Washington Post created test impostor accounts for Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and comedian Blaire Erskine with their permission to test the new service. Both impersonator accounts were verified within minutes.
Musk said Friday that “deliberate impersonation/deception will result in account suspension.”
Under the new system, any user willing to pay $8 per month can get verified — an option that was previously reserved for more “high-profile” accounts, including celebrities and journalists.
“All verified individual humans will have same blue check, as boundary of what constitutes ‘notable’ is otherwise too subjective,” Musk wrote, adding he will be offering a “longer explanation” next week.
Musk on Thursday announced he would be letting more banned accounts back on the platform — except for those who have broken the law or “engaged in egregious spam” — after polling his followers on the topic.
