Musk canceló la marca de verificación «oficial» que Twitter acababa de lanzar / Elon Musk Says Twitter Is Ditching Gray ‘Official’ Check Mark Hours After Launching It

NUEVA YORK.- Elon Musk anunció este miércoles que ha cancelado la nueva marca de «oficial» que Twitter acababa de empezar a dar a ciertos usuarios verificados para distinguirlos del tradicional símbolo azul, que ahora también pueden obtener los suscriptores de su servicio de pago.

Apenas unas horas después de poner en marcha este nuevo sistema, la red social dio marcha atrás y procedió a eliminar esa etiqueta de los perfiles de empresas, entidades gubernamentales y personalidades que la había recibido.

En respuesta a un usuario que había visto desaparecer esa nueva marca de color gris bajo su nombre, Musk confirmó que ha optado por eliminar el distintivo («Me lo cargué», escribió) y dijo que la marca azul será «el gran igualador».

En otro mensaje, Musk dijo: «Tengan en cuenta que Twitter hará muchas tonterías en los próximos meses. Nos quedaremos con lo que funciona y cambiaremos lo que no».

Dar el popular «tick» azul que distingue a los usuarios verificados a quien se suscriba al servicio Twitter Blue -con un coste inicial de 8 dólares mensuales- ha sido una de las grandes apuestas del empresario desde que asumió el control de la compañía.

«Ahora, la marca de verificación azul puede significar dos cosas diferentes: que una cuenta se verificó según los criterios de verificación anteriores, o que la cuenta tiene una suscripción al Twitter Blue de Twitter, que se puso a disposición en iOS (sistema operativo móvil de la multinacional Apple) en los EE.UU., Canadá, Australia, Nueva Zelanda y el Reino Unido el 9 de noviembre», anunció hoy Twitter en su web.

Aunque los suscriptores de pago recibirán la marca azul que hasta ahora distinguía a las cuentas verificadas, no necesitarán demostrar a Twitter su identidad, según confirmó la empresa.

El sistema de verificación vigente hasta ahora había sido creado por Twitter en 2009 con el fin de garantizar que detrás de cuentas influyentes se encontraba la persona o institución que ésta decía ser.

EFE

Elon Musk Says Twitter Is Ditching Gray ‘Official’ Check Mark Hours After Launching It

Elon Musk has already dumped the gray “official” check mark.

Hours after Twitter Inc. started rolling out the label verifying the authenticity of a user’s account, Mr. Musk, Twitter’s new owner, said he was getting rid of it.

“I just killed it,” Mr. Musk said in a tweet in response to Marques Brownlee, a tech influencer, who posted that his official label was gone.

Instead, Mr. Musk pointed to Twitter Blue, the company’s revamped subscription service that charges people $7.99 to obtain blue check marks and other benefits.

“Blue check will be the great leveler,” Mr. Musk said.

The rollback of the new verification system comes after two tumultuous weeks at Twitter since Mr. Musk has taken over the platform. He has pushed through numerous changes, including dissolving the company board, laying off thousands of employees and overhauling the platform’s products.

The company’s relationship with advertisers has also soured, as companies pulled their spending from the site. Mr. Musk has said Twitter has had “a massive drop in revenue” and that he has tried to address activists’ concerns about the company’s content moderation.

His approach contrasts with much of the advice management gurus have given for decades on how to run companies in the early days after a takeover.

“Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months,” Mr. Musk said in a tweet Wednesday. “We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.”

Mr. Musk later on Wednesday, in an online question-and-answer session on Twitter Spaces, the platform’s audio chat service, said he didn’t intend to do dumb things.

“If we don’t try bold moves, how will we make great improvements?” Mr. Musk said. “These come with some risks. The key is to be extremely agile.”

Mr. Musk took several questions from David Cohen, the chief executive of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade organization. In one exchange, Mr. Cohen asked how Mr. Musk thought Twitter was doing regarding criteria important to advertisers, including scale, relevance, brand safety, impact on advertisers’ bottom line and creativity.

Mr. Musk replied that Twitter probably wasn’t doing great on any of those for now. He added that improving the relevance of advertisements shown to users is a priority for Twitter in the coming months. 

Mr. Musk also expanded on his rationale for scrapping the official label, calling it an “aesthetic nightmare.”

He said it was “simply another way of creating a two-class system.”

Twitter officials said late Tuesday that the company was introducing an official label to distinguish between accounts that have subscribed to Twitter Blue and paid for blue check marks and those that have been authenticated by the company.

Accounts that were eligible to receive an official label included those of governments, companies, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures, said Esther Crawford, director of product management at Twitter, according to her LinkedIn profile.

For a few hours on Wednesday, Twitter designated the accounts of media outlets including The Wall Street Journal and celebrities such as Taylor Swift as official. The labels were removed before noon Eastern time.

Adding to the confusion Wednesday, Ms. Crawford said the official label will be a part of the Twitter Blue launch in a scaled-back fashion.

“We are just focusing on government and commercial entities to begin with,” she said in a tweet Wednesday, after Mr. Musk said he was getting rid of the official label. “What you saw him mention was the fact that we’re not focusing on giving individuals the ‘Official’ label right now.”

Later Wednesday, Ms. Crawford retweeted an update from Twitter’s help center, which said Twitter isn’t currently putting an “official” label on accounts.

By Joseph De Avila and Alexa Corse