The ‘Official’ tag appears to be back on Twitter. Some official company accounts, including the likes of Uber India, McDonald’s, Hulu, Xbox, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and others are suddenly showing the ‘Official’ tags beside the profile name. For those unaware, the ‘Official’ tag was briefly introduced by Twitter to help users understand the veracity of certain official accounts, primarily of public companies or public figures, including the likes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, within hours of introduction, Twitter’s new chief Elon Musk said he was ‘killing’ it.
Now, it appears that the ‘Official’ tag is suddenly making a comeback on Twitter.
Why is Twitter bringing back ‘Official’ tag? Is it here to stay?
The ‘Official’ tag first started surfacing on Twitter on November 9, when several accounts of public personalities — including the likes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman — started showing the label beside account names.
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This was largely believed to be Twitter’s new way of denoting official accounts on the microblogging platform after Musk decided to monetise the blue tick verification badge for $7.99 per month. However, within hours of its introduction, Musk tweeted that he decided to ‘kill’ it.
The new chief clarified in another tweet that Twitter will be experimenting with several changes in the coming months, keeping some that works, and changing that don’t.
Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months.
We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022
The ‘Official’ tags that are showing up on various accounts are generally seen on company accounts and not individual accounts like earlier. It could be possible that Twitter has decided to add the label to verified organisation accounts only. However, given Musk’s warning on “dumb things”, it’s hard to say for certain whether the ‘Official’ tag is finally here to stay.
Considering that Musk has been extremely vocal about whatever changes are being introduced on Twitter, it can be expected that an official clarification should come in soon.