Elon Musk has famously changed a lot at Twitter, with one of the changes being the types of verification badges that are displayed in front of a user’s profile. Earlier, one could only see a single blue check mark, which indicated that the profile belonged to someone notable – a celebrity, politician, known personality, and so on. Now, these checkmarks can denote entirely different things.
Here’s what the different checkmarks on Twitter mean:
Blue Check: This could either mean that the profile belongs to someone who had a verified account before Elon Musk took over, or that they have paid the subscription fee to get access to the account.
Gold check: This means that the profile belongs to an organisation or company.
Company affiliation mark: With the new Twitter Blue for Business plan, you might see a blue box next to a gold check. This means that the profile in question is affiliated with the company.
Grey check: Grey checkmarks indicate that the account belongs to a government official, media houses, political parties, and brands.
Here’s what the different Twitter badges mean:
State-affiliated media: This badge is given to media houses that don’t have editorial independence. It means that their content is biased.
Government accounts: This means that the profile belongs to a government official or entity.
US election candidates: This means that the profile belongs to someone who is running in the midterms, or is running for a seat in the US Senate or House of Representatives. It could also mean that the person is running for Governor.
Automated labels: This will be used on bot accounts that offer useful information (such as a bot account that offers weather updates).
Verified phone number badge: This will be used to indicate that the person holding the account has verified their identity via their phone number.
Twitter profile category: This is basically a self-attested label for businesses. For instance, one may choose to add a label saying “Coffee House”.