Just One Day Launched, Elon Musk Immediately Cancels "Official" Account Label

Twitter unplugged official labels. (photo: Twitter @twitter)

JAKARTA – Elon Musk's changing policies continue to be shown after leading Twitter Inc. The world's richest man in a tweet on Wednesday, November 9 stated he was "killing" the new official label for Twitter accounts, the same day that the "Official" account tag began to roll out.

"Please note that Twitter will be doing a lot of stupid things in the coming months," he tweeted. "We will keep what works & change what doesn't."

Musk revoked the official label just a day after a product executive at the social media company announced it, leading to confusion about the difference between the label and Twitter's current blue tick that signifies a verified account.

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

Elon Musk also told advertisers last Wednesday that he aims to turn social media platforms into a force for the truth and stop fake accounts in a bid to appease brands and ad agencies that are increasingly backward and unwilling to advertise.

Days after Twitter rocked users and advertisers by cutting its staff in half, more than 100,000 listeners listened to Musk speak on Twitter's Spaces feature. He joins Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of security and integrity, who has assured users that Twitter will enforce its policies against harmful content.

Musk, also speaking calmly about his vision for Twitter, touted the $8-a-month fee for a premium subscription as a bot remedy and contemplated the possibility of one-day offering money market accounts.

In the week since Musk took over, GM, General Mills, and Mondelez International Inc have pulled ads from Twitter. They worry that Musk could relax content moderation rules. Big brands including Wendy's Co, Chick-fil-A, General Motors Co, and Ford Motor Co also monitored Musk's talks last Wednesday.

Musk blamed Twitter's "massive drop in revenue" on a coalition of civil rights groups that has increased pressure on advertisers, who demanded they suspend advertising globally after he laid off about half of the staff at the social media company.

Musk said a few things to the brand that has been pausing its advertising for a while. "I understand if people want to give a minute. But the best way to see how things are developing is to use Twitter," he was quoted as saying by Reuters.

He said a paid Twitter Blue subscription account with a blue tick will become more important and prominent, as Twitter users will focus on posts from verified users and ignore other low-quality content. According to him, paid services will also deter spammers, who don't want to pay for their accounts.

"There's a huge difference between free speech and freedom of reach," Musk said, adding that Twitter would limit the visibility of hateful content.

Musk also responded to questions about his own tweets that have angered several advertisers, including one that has now been deleted, related to a conspiracy theory about the attack on the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as a tweet urging voters to vote for the Republican Candidate in the US midterm elections.

"Twitter should be as neutral a platform as possible. That doesn't mean I'm completely neutral," he said.

Meanwhile, Roth tweeted Wednesday that Twitter had reduced the appearance of malicious content in search results by 95% compared to before Musk's acquisition.

"My observation of Twitter over the last few weeks has been that content is actually improving, not getting worse," Musk said. He told advertisers Twitter would move aggressively to suspend accounts that "engaged in deception" or fraud.

He also promised a faster evolution of the Twitter service, opening up the possibility of enabling peer-to-peer payments, money market accounts and eventually debit cards.

Musk has moved quickly to make changes to the Twitter app, creating some confusion, after removing the account label “Official”, which was just launched.

A Twitter executive later clarified that the platform would not provide an official label to individuals, but would roll out to government and commercial entities anyway.