Elon Musk Says Twitter Blue With Gold, Grey, Blue Check Marks to Relaunch on December 2

Elon Musk on Friday said that Twitter Blue, the company's premium subscription service for verification, is expected to launch on December 2. Twitter will provide a gold check mark for companies, a grey check for government, and a blue check mark for individuals (celebrity or not), Elon Musk said in a tweet. Meanwhile, all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before the check activates, he added.

Musk responded to a user on Twitter apologising for the delay in relaunching the service, and stated that the company was "tentatively" launching its verification service on December 2. Twitter will use different coloured check marks to distinguish between three types of accounts, according to the platform's new owner.

"Gold check for companies, grey check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not) and all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates. Painful, but necessary," Musk said in the tweet.

The coveted blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists, and other public figures.

But a subscription option, open to anyone prepared to pay, was rolled out earlier this month to help Twitter grow revenue as Musk fights to retain advertisers.

Earlier this week, Musk stated that the social media company was holding off the relaunch of its blue check subscription service, a delay from his initial tentative timeline to bring back the service on the platform by November 29. "Holding off relaunch of Blue Verified until there is high confidence of stopping impersonation," Musk had stated in a tweet.

"Will probably use different colour check for organisations than individuals," he said at the time.

Musk had paused Twitter's recently announced $8 (roughly Rs. 650) blue check subscription service, as fake accounts mushroomed and had said Twitter's sought-after blue check subscription service will be relaunched at a later date.

He had previously tweeted that with the new release, changing someone's verified name would cause the loss of the blue check until their name is confirmed by Twitter to meet the platform's terms of service.