In the flip-flopping rollercoaster that is the story of Twitter Blue, Musk has now announced that the blue verified badge is not the only verification badge that will be implemented. Along with the classic blue tick, there will now be gold and grey ticks for verified users, including companies and governments. 

“Gold check for companies, grey check for governments, blue for individuals (celebrities or not). Painful, but necessary,” tweeted Musk.  

The move is an attempt to quell the onslaught of parody accounts pretending to be companies, which resulted in the now infamous stock crash of Eli Lilly after a parody account tweeted “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.” 

Following the chaos, Musk announced that Twitter Blue was temporarily suspended. Prior to the suspension, any user could pay just $8 and become virtually anyone they wanted, highlighting the need for an actual verification tick. 

Now, accounts will be manually verified and given the appropriate tick, while standard accounts will still be able to gain the blue tick.