Twitter: new two-tick certification system

Twitter will implement two-tier certification. Some accounts will have an “Official”label added.

The new Twitter certification system will eventually offer two different levels. Esther Crawford, VP in charge of subscriptions for Twitter Blue, confirmed that in addition to adding a blue tick, the company will be using an “official”label for certain accounts.

Twitter will introduce two-tier certification

The label has been seen on internal versions of Twitter before, but this is the first time someone at the company has confirmed its existence. Twitter, which recently fired most of its public relations team, declined to comment on this information.

According to Esther Crawford, the “official”label will be reserved for “government accounts, commercial companies, business associates, major media outlets, publishers and certain public figures.”At this time, no one knows for sure how Twitter will assign eligible accounts or whether they will have to go through an additional verification process. “All accounts already certified will not be eligible for ‘official’ status and the latter is not available for sale,”Esther Crawford tweeted.

Not all previously verified accounts will receive the “Official”label, and this 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

Some accounts will have an “Official”label added.

This initiative appears to be a response to some of the criticism that has been raised about Elon Musk’s intentions for certification and Twitter Blue. Paying for certification would open the door to scammers of all kinds, which would only increase harassment, fraud, and the spread of misinformation. Esther Crawfod is not the first Twitter executive to address this issue. Yoel Roth, head of corporate ethics at the company, also said that Twitter intends to “increase the number of investigations into Blue Certified accounts that show signs of abuse, including those that impersonate others.”

This new “official”label is in any case very similar to Twitter’s existing certification system, which Elon Musk and others have already called unfair. And the fact that it will only be given to certain accounts, left to Twitter’s discretion, suggests that the company will once again be the only one in assessing the “relevance”of an account, which many company executives, including Yoel Roth, have criticized.

This “official”label and extended certification should be available in the coming days.

For years, Twitter verification has been challenging because it signals both authenticity (you are who you say you are) and notoriety (you are “important”by some standards).

Fame is inherently difficult to define fairly around the world. I support getting rid of it.

— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 8, 2022