'Just killed it': Musk on Twitter's 'Official' tag just hrs after rollout
New Delhi: Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, said he has "killed" the new 'Official' label for certain verified Twitter accounts just hours after the feature was visible on multiple handles of governments, politicians, officials and media houses.
Just hours after the feature went live, he hinted that it simply didn't work.
"I just killed it," he said in a tweet replying to a web video producer Marques Brownlee's tweet of the 'Official' label vanishing after a brief appearance.
On Wednesday evening, an 'Official' label with a tick mark in a small circle appeared below the verified Twitter handles of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several of his ministers, politicians, sportspersons and media outlets.
The idea being to mark accounts of government officials, media outlets and other public figures once changes to the platform's blue checkmarks come into force.
"We're not currently putting an 'Official' label on accounts but we are aggressively going after impersonation and deception," Twitter said in a tweet.
The world's richest man added: "Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn't."
To clear the obvious confusion that the appearance and sudden disappearance of the 'Official' label created, Musk posted a tweet calling himself the "Complaint hotline operator".
"Please mention your complaints below," he said.
Esther Crawford, who works on early-stage products for Twitter, then tweeted: "The official label is still going out as part of the Twitter Blue launch - we are just focusing on government and commercial entities to begin with.
"What you saw him mention was the fact that we're not focusing on giving individuals the 'official' label right now."
Later, speaking in an online town square meeting, Musk said the 'official' tag could turn into an "aesthetic nightmare".
"There are no sacred cows in product at Twitter anymore. 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.
Besides Modi, the 'Official' label on Wednesday evening appeared on Twitter handles of several government departments and ministers including Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, some other opposition party leaders as well as sportspersons like Sachin Tendulkar too were given that label.
The label was said to be in line with Twitter's just-announced changes for verified accounts, as part of its new USD 8 premium subscription product.
