Elon Musk Announces New Date For Twitter Verified Launch

Elon Musk, the world's richest person and Chief Twit, has announced that Twitter will relaunch its new verification system on Friday, December 2.

Musk was responding to a user named CryptoKing who had expressed difficulty in trying to subscribe to the new format which will compel those verified on the social media platform to pay Ksh979.20 (US$8) per month, as per current exchange rates.

"Elon, I’m trying. It won’t let me and I’m Verified (need to edit 1 character I can’t spell)," the user complained.

In a quick response, the Twitter boss announced the new launch date for Twitter Verified, three days after he paused it to an unspecified date to allow for the issue of impersonation to be sorted out comprehensively.

"Sorry for the delay, we’re tentatively launching Verified on Friday next week (December 2)," he wrote on Friday, November 25.

Musk reiterated his plan to introduce a new strategy that will see the implementation of different colour checkmarks to separate individual Twitter accounts and organizations.

When the system launches, there will be different colour checks for companies, government organisations and for individuals, whether they are celebrities or not.

However, all verified accounts will be subject to manual authentication before the system relaunches.

"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," he added.

The billionaire had previously announced the relaunch of the verification process after he suspended the subscription-based blue tick verification labels when Twitter users took advantage of it to get the coveted premium badge.

After the service was relaunched, a large number of fake verified accounts surfaced on Twitter, forcing it to change its plans.

Musk also issued an ultimatum to owners of accounts with unpaid blue badges, stating that “All unpaid legacy Blue checkmarks will be removed in a few months."

He previously offered “a general amnesty” to accounts that had been suspended from the platform beginning next week after he posted a poll seeking users' views on whether or not the platform should restore the affected accounts.

He had ended former United States (US) president Donald Trump’s ban from the platform after running a similar poll. Trump was banned after the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, but said he doesn’t intend to return to the platform.

The poll also included a caveat that suspended account holders could rejoin the platform “provided they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.” Around 3.2 million users responded to the poll, which voted 72.4 per cent in favour of amnesty.

Historically, Twitter has banned accounts that glorify hate and harassment, have the potential to incite violence or rampantly spread misinformation that can lead to harm.

However, the new directive did not touch on how Twitter would deal with content moderation in the future, especially with some of the world's most problematic voices making a comeback on the platform.

Elon Musk with former US President, Donald Trump. /BUSINESS INSIDER