It's official: Twitter creates a new tick so it can still charge for blue ones

This makes things clear.

The feature was introduced after a lawsuit was filed by a former baseball manager who was being impersonated on the service. Verification became a status symbol because it wasn't easy to get verified, commenting derisively about "blue checks" became a common pastime, and de-verification was used as a consequence of violating the terms of service.

Verification is an important way to distinguish between reliable sources and official government accounts. The tick will tell you who was verified before the scheme was rolled out, but it won't tell you who was verified before the scheme was rolled out. The team is doubling down instead of rolling back the plan.

The official label will be introduced upon the launch of the new blue, according to Esther Crawford, the director of product management. The old verification/new Blue tick has a small checkmark inside a scalloped circle, but the verified circle is filled in with blue and the gray one is just an outline. If an official account is also a paid account, it will be possible to have two ticks. The accounts verified under the old actual-verification scheme will not be stripped of their blue ticks, which will look the same as the new ones. Is that with me yet?

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Crawford said that not all previously verified accounts will get the official label. Major media outlets, publishers and some public figures are included in the accounts that will receive it.

Crawford (or the account purporting to be her, at least) did not preview whether the label would be displayed in the timelines alongside display names as blue/Blue ticks currently are, which raises the question of whether having to tap or click through to a profile every time you want to be

While Crawford's profile says she works at Twitter, it doesn't have a tick of any kind, so this reporter asked for further confirmation. This account appears to be hers, she's been replied to by verified former employees, and she went mildly viral for sleeping at the office. If not sleeping on the office floor and leading a team that's apparently shipping not one but two brand new features in a week is enough to earn her an old fashioned tick, we should assume that going forward.

To confirm the details of the feature, we reached out to the person still working at the company.

The new version of the social network is due to roll out tomorrow, but it won't mean anything unless you pay for a blue tick. The launch was pushed back to the day after the election because of concerns about the spread of fake news. That will not be a problem from Wednesday onward.