Elon Musk Fears Impersonation, Holds Blue Verification Badge

Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk says it is holding off the relaunch of the Blue verification badge 

Elon Musk recently announced that the relaunch of the Blue verification badge on Twitter will be temporarily suspended "until there is high confidence of stopping impersonation". After taking over the social media giant, Elon Musk initiated the US$8 blue tick verification plan but this has resulted in the mushrooming of a huge amount of fake accounts.

Twitter's new owner Elon Musk has said the social media company is now going to hold off the launch of a new system of issuing Blue verification badges to users and could use different "color checks" for authenticating organizations and individuals. "Holding off the relaunch of Blue Verified until there is high confidence in stopping impersonation. Will probably use different color check for organizations than individuals," Elon Musk tweeted on Monday. His initial plan was delayed amid concerns that users could originate fake accounts, posing as political leaders, lawmakers, news outlets, and organizations and purchase the blue verification badge, thereby adding to the spread of misinformation.

Musk had defended the much-criticized paid blue tick verification plan by saying that the blue checkmark will be the "great leveler". "Widespread Blue verification badge will democratize journalism & empower the voice of the people," he said in a tweet. The plan went wrong, although when blue verified users changed their user names to 'Elon Musk' to test Twitter's new owner who describes himself as a "free speech absolutist". Thousands of such accounts were suspended, including that of comedian Kathy Griffin who had two million followers on the platform.

Earlier, it was reported that Twitter was said to be delaying its plans to charge $8 a month for its verification badge until after the November 8 midterm elections in the US amid concerns over the spread of false information on the site. Recently Elon Musk ran a poll to reinstate the suspended account of former US President Donald Trump. Nearly 15 million people voted on Twitter which saw a narrow win for those who supported the move.