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Sounak Mukhopadhyay

Twitter brings back ‘Official’ tags: But, India will have to wait for it

Twitter has brought back the 'Official' tag

“To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts," Twitter Support tweeted on November 11.

The 'Official' tag on US President Joe Biden's account

India is not mentioned as one of the nations that are eligible for the tag. At the moment, labels are visible on pertinent Twitter accounts from China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Belarus, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates that are “Government accounts heavily engaged in geopolitics and diplomacy", “State-affiliated media entities" and “Individuals, such as editors or journalists, associated with state-affiliated media entities".

Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, said that he "killed" the new official label for verified Twitter accounts just hours after the feature had become available on multiple handles belonging to governments, politicians, authorities, and media organisations. On November 10, soon after the functionality was live, he dropped a hint that it wasn't actually functional. "I just killed it," he said in a tweet.

Also Read: Is Elon Musk a threat to US national security? Joe Biden replies

The goal was to mark the accounts of well-known individuals, media organisations, and other stakeholders once changes to the platform's blue checkmarks went into effect.

Since Twitter started allowing paying customers to receive verified blue check marks, there have been an increasing number of fake accounts. While a fake Eli Lilly & Co. account tweeted that insulin was now free, requiring the corporation to issue an apology, another account acting as Nintendo Inc. released an image of Super Mario holding up a middle finger. A fictitious Tesla Inc. account made light of the automaker's track record for safety.

Elon Musk also tweeted on November 11 that all parody-related accounts must have "parody" in their names.

Also Read: UN reminds Elon Musk of Twitter’s obligation to human rights

Musk, the richest man in the world, purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October. He is currently dealing with a number of difficulties as prominent advertisers leave the platform due to uncertainty about the firm's capacity to combat fake accounts and hate speech.

In his first address to employees this week, Musk suggested that the company would go bankrupt, according to a prior report from Bloomberg News. Musk, who is also the Tesla CEO, has also witnessed resignations within his leadership team.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sounak Mukhopadhyay

Sounak Mukhopadhyay, who also goes by the name Sounak Mukherjee, has been producing digital news since 2012. He's worked for the International Business Times, The Inquisitr, and Moneycontrol in the past. He's also contributed to Free Press Journal and TheRichest with feature articles. He covers news for a wide range of subjects including business, finance, economy, politics and social media. Before working with digital news publications, he worked as a freelance content writer.
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