Musk Warns Twitter Will Do 'Dumb Things,' Nixes Some Official Badges

Twitter's new owner and CEO Elon Musk acknowledged the short-lived official badge on the social media platform this week, telling users to anticipate a lot of "dumb" changes as he takes over the site.

"Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months," Musk tweeted on Wednesday. "We will keep what works & change what doesn't."

Twitter had just rolled out a new "official" badge for high-profile accounts this week but scrapped the idea less than a day later.

On Wednesday, YouTube personality Marques Brownlee explained Twitter's new program that had two verified checks, with one of the "official" badges being used for government accounts, businesses, media outlets and some public figures. However, Brownlee noted that it was gone an hour later.

"I just killed it," Musk tweeted back at Brownlee.

Musk, who acquired Twitter last month and has been crusading in on a flurry of changes, including a massive shakeup of the company's workforce, has drawn scrutiny over his plans for Twitter's verified badges.

He's proposed implementing an $8/month subscription fee for users to keep their blue checkmarks, which have been used on the app to identify public figures and organizations and protect those accounts.

In addition to the paid blue checks, Twitter said certain accounts would also receive "official" badges which feature gray checkmarks. The gray checks were first rolled out overnight on Tuesday, showing up on both the profile page for certain accounts and next to the name when tweets appeared on users' timelines.

"Not all previously verified accounts will get the 'Official' label and the label is not available for purchase," Twitter employee Esther Crawford announced on Twitter on Tuesday.

"The new Twitter Blue does not include ID verification – it's an opt-in, paid subscription that offers a blue checkmark and access to select features," she added. "We'll continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between account types."

On Wednesday, Crawford confirmed on Twitter that "The official label is still going out as part of the @TwitterBlue launch -- we are just focusing on government and commercial entities to begin with."

She said what Musk had referred to when he said he had "killed it" was that Twitter was going to move its focus away from implementing "official" badges for individuals for the time being.

"Elon is willing to try lots of things -- many will fail, some will succeed. The goal is to find the right mix of successful changes to ensure the long-term health and growth of the business," Crawford tweeted.