Twitter's new 'verified' service will spot a gold check mark for companies

Twitter's new 'verified' service will soon have different colours of verified ticks depending on the type of account, according to CEO Elon Musk, with all verified accounts to be “manually authenticated” before the check is activated.

Starting December 2, there would be a gold check tick for companies, a grey-colored one for government accounts and the existing blue one for individuals, whether they are celebrities or not, says Musk, who described the move as "painful, but necessary."

This is coming after the social media company was forced to pause the $8 per month Twitter Blue service, which allowed anyone to pay the subscription for the blue verification badge, after users abused the system by impersonating brands and famous people.