Musk says color-coded verification system for Twitter will come into effect next Friday

Elon Musk announced in a tweet today (Nov .25) that Twitter would launch its delayed color-coded “Verified” service on Friday next week.

The new service would feature a “gold check” for companies, a grey one for government accounts and the existing blue one for individuals, regardless of whether they are celebrities or not. See the tweet for yourself below:

Sorry for the delay, we’re tentatively launching Verified on Friday next week.

Gold check for companies, grey check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not) and all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates.

Painful, but necessary.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2022

"Painful but necessary"

The billionaire added that before any check is activated, all verified accounts will be “manually authenticated,” further calling the move “painful, but necessary.”

The decision comes a mere day after Musk posted a poll to his 118 million followers asking if suspended accounts on the social media platform should be given a general amnesty, or an official pardon.

Specifically, Musk asked, “Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?”

Musk was also recently forced to pause his 8 dollar ($) per month Twitter Blue service, which allowed anyone to pay the subscription for the blue verification tick. This comes after users began to abuse the system by impersonating well-known brands and famous people.

Better yet, it was only two weeks ago when Twitter gave a blue check verified mark to an account of Jesus Christ which came as a surprise to many as Musk is known for his aversion to fake accounts.

The 'Official Account' badge was killed swiftly

In addition, the first feature that Musk created was killed under 24 hours. The 'Official Account' Badge was up early November for a limited number of accounts but was soon ended.

The word 'Official' would be shown on the accounts that had been verified by Twitter staff, as being who they claim to be. This was to replace the Twitter Blue check mark that had previously been the way the social media platform verified its accounts.

To justify the constant changes that the platform is undergoing, Musk also tweeted earlier in November, "Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works and change what doesn't.”

Meanwhile, it seems Twitter was having some technical issues. Crypto King user tweeted to Musk: “Elon, I’m trying. It won’t let me and I’m Verified (need to edit 1 character I can’t spell).”

The twitter owner responded with an apology: “Sorry for the delay, we’re tentatively launching Verified on Friday next week.”

Musk is doing everything he can to return Twitter to its former glory

It seems Musk is doing everything he can to return Twitter to its former glory. The platform has suffered as advertisers have halted their spend on the social media outlet citing worries that it may no longer be a safe place with Musk’s takeover.

However, little seems to have actually changed since the buy-out indicating that worries may be ill-guided and unreasonable. Will Musk’s new feature be enough to soothe advertisers and return much-needed ad money to the platform? Only time will tell.