SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 25 — Twitter will roll out verified gold and grey check marks as it relaunches the coveted blue check service next Friday, chief executive officer Elon Musk said in a tweet, after holding off the rollout earlier this week.

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

All verified accounts will be manually authenticated before the check is activated, Musk said.

“Individuals can have a secondary tiny logo to show they belong to an organization if verified as such by that organization,” Musk said in another tweet, adding that he will give a longer explanation next week.

The company had paused its recently announced US$8 (RM36) blue check subscription service as fake accounts mushroomed, and had said the sought-after blue check subscription service will be relaunched on November 29.

The blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures. — Reuters