Twitter Confirms 'Official' Tag Is Back, Added To Some Accounts To 'Combat Impersonation'

Twitter brought back the 'Official' tag after briefly introducing it a day ago.

The ‘Official’ tag is 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 now showing the ‘Official’ tags beside the profile name. Twitter confirmed via the @TwitterSupport handle that the 'Official' label has been added to some accounts to "combat impersonation". For those unaware, the ‘Official’ tag was earlier 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 has made a comeback.

Why is Twitter bringing back 'Official' tag?

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. 

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.

However, when Twitter rolled out its revamped Blue plan, it was followed by a flurry of fake accounts on the platform with the verified blue tick. This, in turn, led to users posting hilarious memes, questioning the monetisation of Twitter's blue tick. 

So, Twitter decided to add an 'Official' label to some verified accounts to help users understand which is a verified account, and which is not. 

The 'Official' tags that are showing up on various accounts are generally seen on company accounts and not individual accounts like earlier. It remains to be seen if Twitter will introduce the 'Official' tag for individual users as well.