Twitter abruptly scraps gray 'Official' verification badge within hours

In a sort of drama on Twitter, Elon Musk on Wednesday killed the gray "official" verification badge after rolling it out for some users, including India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other government handles, saying that the Blue check will be the great leveller on the platform.

Twitter earlier started giving gray badges to government officials and public figures globally, including in India, but later reversed the change.

"I just killed it," Musk tweeted to a user.

"Blue check will be the great leveller," he added.

Musk said that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months.

"We will keep what works & change what doesn't," the new Twitter CEO posted.

A user who got the 'Official' badge posted: "Update: It's now gone".

Earlier, Twitter started labelling Indian government handles and Indian media as "official" ahead of the roll-out of blue badge subscriptions across the country.

The Prime Minister's Office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official Twitter account, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's Twitter account had the "official label".

Within hours, those Official labels were gone.

Esther Crawford, head of the new Twitter Blue service, had said that select accounts related to governments, companies or public figures will get a gray "Official" check mark to separate them from other users.

The new Twitter Blue service comes with fewer ads, search priority, an ability to post longer videos, and a blue badge.

Musk has confirmed that the new Twitter Blue subscription service for $8 will be available in India in less than a month.

--IANS

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