Twitter ‘Affiliate’ badges arrive to combat brand impersonation

In mid-November, Elon Musk mentioned Twitter was engaged on a function that will permit manufacturers and organizations to determine accounts related to them. A month later, the corporate has begun rolling that function out. As first noticed by social media advisor (and former Subsequent Net journalist) Matt Navarra, Twitter has added a brand new “Affiliate” badge that may seem alongside an account’s verified checkmark. The aim of the icon is to level you to the account’s mum or dad account if it is not the first account of a model or group. As an illustration, in the event you go to the Twitter Support account, you possibly can click on on the badge to go straight to the principle Twitter account. Manufacturers now even have sq. profile footage to additional differentiate their presence on the platform.

Musk first introduced the function in the identical week that Twitter made its first failed try at rolling out paid account verification. After the corporate started enrolling customers into its revamped Twitter Blue subscription, verified trolls used the service to impersonate manufacturers and celebrities. The state of affairs was a nightmare for companies like Eli Lilly. The pharmaceutical agency noticed billions of {dollars} erased from its market cap after a pretend “verified” account misled folks into believing the corporate was making insulin free.