Confusion over blue check as Twitter launches, then retracts, gray check

Elon Musk sought to reassure advertisers on Twitter on Wednesday that his chaotic takeover of the social media platform won't harm their brands.

But his effort came after a day of changes to the platform's account verification systems, and an acknowledgement from Musk that some "dumb things" might happen as he transforms the company.

On Wednesday morning, Twitter users had woken up to find some pages belonging to high-profile accounts, including national political figures, news organizations and some prominent journalists, marked with the new gray "official" ticks that meant to signify the accounts were authentic.

The new labels had been announced by product executive Esther Crawford just the day before. Their introduction came in response to mounting concerns over account authentication on the platform following changes to its previous verification system.

That system used what are known as "blue checks" to confirm an account's authenticity. But starting on Wednesday, users whosigned up for Twitter's blue-tick verification badge by joining the its Twitter Blue subscription service and paying a monthly fee.

Just hours after the rollout of the gray badges, Musk responded to a tweet from YouTube product reviewer Marques Brownlee that he had "killed" the official tag , adding that the blue check will be the "great leveler".

Shortly after, Crawford, followed up with her own tweet saying the "official" label would still be rolled out as part of the impending Twitter Blue launch. What Musk meant, she said, was Twitter were not focusing on giving individuals that label as of yet and focusing on "government and commercial entities to begin with".