Twitter to Launch Multicoloured Verification Service Next Week

Twitter intends to launch its verification service with different colours of checkmarks for individuals, companies and governments next Friday.

Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has designated colours for different categories - gold for companies, grey for governments and a blue check for individuals, including celebrities. Accounts will be manually authenticated before verification is activated.

Painful, but necessary,

Elon Musk said.

Individual could have a second tiny logo to mark whether they are part of a particular organisation, which should confirm that the person represents them or works with them. Musk added that the decision to put a blue tick on all individual accounts was taken because an individual's prominence is a subjective matter.

The subscription service was suspended on November 11 amid a rise in users impersonating verified accounts. For example, one user posed as drug maker Eli Lilly and Co  tweeted that insulin would be free, causing the company's shares to plummet and forcing it to apologise.