Twitter's policy regarding Verified Accounts has been updated, and now the social media platform is sending out notifications to verified users, urging them to comply with the changes before January 22nd, 2021, as reported by Matt Navarra.
This recent announcement from the company was long in the making and highly anticipated by its massive userbase. Verified Accounts were essentially a badge granted to certain users distinguished within their respective fields in an effort to verify their online presence. Denoted by a blue tick mark at the end of usernames, the service started off well enough, only to eventually fall by the wayside as a barrage of criticism struck the mechanism for both only favoring celebrities as opposed to less-famous, yet distinguished professionals. The system also raised concerns about inadvertently creating a class system with Twitter's community, that could prove detrimental.
Twitter heard these complaints loud and clear, eventually deciding to scrap the program altogether in 2017, as they sought to dig into where the verification program fell short, and what could be remedied. Coming from a company that took years of testing to decide whether or not threaded replies would work, then discarding the idea altogether, the community would have to hold their breath on an announcement for 3 years.
In 2020, Twitter finally unveiled a new draft policy for verification, making some changes. Other than being more inclusive of renowned individuals outside of celebrity circles, the platform also pushed for users to be more active and follow a certain list of guidelines, i.e. having a profile picture, being active for a certain amount of time, providing a bio, and so on. Users failing to comply would lose their verified badge. Although such action would not be taken unannounced.
Twitter has recently started issuing notifications to Verified users, citing their shortcomings and asking them to make up before the looming deadline of January 22nd. The notifications also come with warning tags, specifying the edits required to maintain verification. Other than that, the platform has also released a more expansive list of criteria for users looking to be verified. These do, however, seem to be for activists and organizers specifically.
As reported by the keen social media reporter Matt Navarra, users have to at least fulfil a baseline set of requirements, both online and offline. The online requirements include being in the top 0.1% of active local accounts, the top 0.05% in terms of how much local conversation revolves around them, or instigating widespread conversation on the platform involving a hashtag or otherwise.
The offline requirements consist of having a Google Trends profile displaying recent search activity, a stable and up-to-par Wikipedia article, 3 or more featured references in the past 6 months from news outlets, and evidence of a leadership role in officials channels conducting advocacy work. An extensive list, but users will be happy to learn that only one from each category is required for verification eligibility.
Read next: Several Verified Twitter Users Hacked in Latest Elon Musk Cryptocurrency Scam, Victims Defrauded of Half a Million Dollars
This recent announcement from the company was long in the making and highly anticipated by its massive userbase. Verified Accounts were essentially a badge granted to certain users distinguished within their respective fields in an effort to verify their online presence. Denoted by a blue tick mark at the end of usernames, the service started off well enough, only to eventually fall by the wayside as a barrage of criticism struck the mechanism for both only favoring celebrities as opposed to less-famous, yet distinguished professionals. The system also raised concerns about inadvertently creating a class system with Twitter's community, that could prove detrimental.
Twitter heard these complaints loud and clear, eventually deciding to scrap the program altogether in 2017, as they sought to dig into where the verification program fell short, and what could be remedied. Coming from a company that took years of testing to decide whether or not threaded replies would work, then discarding the idea altogether, the community would have to hold their breath on an announcement for 3 years.
In 2020, Twitter finally unveiled a new draft policy for verification, making some changes. Other than being more inclusive of renowned individuals outside of celebrity circles, the platform also pushed for users to be more active and follow a certain list of guidelines, i.e. having a profile picture, being active for a certain amount of time, providing a bio, and so on. Users failing to comply would lose their verified badge. Although such action would not be taken unannounced.
Twitter has recently started issuing notifications to Verified users, citing their shortcomings and asking them to make up before the looming deadline of January 22nd. The notifications also come with warning tags, specifying the edits required to maintain verification. Other than that, the platform has also released a more expansive list of criteria for users looking to be verified. These do, however, seem to be for activists and organizers specifically.
Twitter’s criteria for whether you’re ‘notable’ and worthy of verification
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) January 16, 2021
You / Your account must at achieve at least one from Column A + one from Column B pic.twitter.com/OfjjWvdcMv
As reported by the keen social media reporter Matt Navarra, users have to at least fulfil a baseline set of requirements, both online and offline. The online requirements include being in the top 0.1% of active local accounts, the top 0.05% in terms of how much local conversation revolves around them, or instigating widespread conversation on the platform involving a hashtag or otherwise.
The offline requirements consist of having a Google Trends profile displaying recent search activity, a stable and up-to-par Wikipedia article, 3 or more featured references in the past 6 months from news outlets, and evidence of a leadership role in officials channels conducting advocacy work. An extensive list, but users will be happy to learn that only one from each category is required for verification eligibility.
Read next: Several Verified Twitter Users Hacked in Latest Elon Musk Cryptocurrency Scam, Victims Defrauded of Half a Million Dollars
