Elon Musk plays Pick A Colour with Twitter ticks coming out in gold, grey, blue

What’s similar between Twitter ticks, the free pandas that Indians used to get with Gems, and Power Rangers?

Well, all three are available in different shades. 

What are the colours? After the disastrous short-lived life that Twitter Blue had, Twitter’s “Chief Twit” AKA CEO Elon Musk has now relaunched the verified accounts on the platform, offering a range of three colours: gold (for companies), grey (for government bodies), and blue (for individuals regardless of them being a celebrity or not). While gold and blue ticks are visible now, the grey still needs to be reflected for government-affiliated accounts. 

When it comes to individual-run accounts, Musk has added that they would have to undergo a manual authentication process to get their blue tick. However, further details for this authentication are still awaited. 

So, is Twitter free now? Nope. The Twitter Blue “relaunch” requires Android users to still pay $8 (₹661.80)per month. The price has also been increased for iPhone users at $11 (₹ 909.97) per month.

But as Musk had earlier announced last month, the $8 rate is not fixed and can be increased in countries depending upon "price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity". It's for that reason that the Indian accounts might start at ₹719 instead of ₹662. 

Musk has earlier been criticised for his $8 scheme but the SpaceX founder and his supporters have been deeming it to be a move towards building a more egalitarian Twitter.

What are the other changes under the relaunch? Word was already in the air when it came to new changes like the Edit Tweet feature, higher quality video uploads (upto 1080p), and a ‘reader mode’. 

Now, Musk adds that the basic plan of Twitter Blue will have half the number of advertisements. He added in a reply to a tweet, “We will offer a higher tier with no ads next year.”

What will happen to the bot accounts? Before the change was announced on Monday, December 12, Musk had been foreshadowing his apparent victory over bots with tweets that read like "Calling all bots. Please attack me." 

To avoid bots from spreading any misinformation and provide more transparency, Musk's company is also planning to relaunch "automated labels". This means that when an account displays the "automated" label, users will know that the account is generating content not produced by a human.

Is the gold tick golden enough for people though? The reactions to the grey and the old blue ticks aren’t that many as of now but businesses are proudly showing off their gold ticks throwing in some cringe-inducing captions. 

Some are commenting on how hideous the shade of golden looks like while others are calling it a more professional-looking improvement over the previous blue. 

What (else) is happening at Twitter right now? As of now, Twitter has also dissolved its Trust and Safety Council. For the unacquainted, this functioned as an advisory group of over 100 civil and human rights organisations that have been addressing hate speech, self-harm, suicide, and other related queries on Twitter since 2016.

According to reports by AP, the body was called for a meeting on Monday night with Twitter staffers only to receive emails announcing the council's disbanding!

It is yet to be seen how long these changes would last given that Musk has had a reputation of hastily introducing new changes. For instance, when Twitter Blue debuted, Musk was apparently warned by his own company's trust and safety staff.

And yet the new update was introduced with much media coverage only to succumb to the rise of fake accounts. Anyone could make their way into Twitter by paying a $8 fee. So, we ended up getting a fake "verified" Nintendo account that uploaded an image of Mario showing the finger to the blue bird!

Anyway.

For now, looks like all previously verified ticks will soon bite the dust, till the account owner pays up. Till then, if you have a blue tick but are unwilling to pay for it... make the most of your last days as Twitter Verified.