Twitter, the microblogging platform revealed in a blog post about its plans to relaunch the verification program, including a new public application process, in early 2021. It said a public feedback period for the new policy would open on Tuesday and run until December 8.
Twitter announced its new policy on how people are “verified” on the site, an area the company has long promised to reconsider to address confusion and criticisms over the blue check-mark badges it uses to authenticate the identity of prominent accounts.
Twitter said it paused public submissions for verification in 2017 after hearing feedback that the program “felt arbitrary and confusing to many people.” It said at the time the checkmark was being confused with “an endorsement or an indicator of importance.”
A year later, Twitter released a statement that they are putting fixes to the verification program on the back burner to focus on issues like election integrity, though it has continued to verify some accounts, such as medical experts tweeting about COVID-19 this year.
This policy will lay the foundation for future improvements by defining what verification means, who is eligible for verification and why some accounts might lose verification to ensure “the process is more equitable”, officials said.
“We plan to relaunch verification, including a new public application process, in early 2021… (As) per the proposed policy, ‘the blue verified badge’ on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic,” the blog post added.
To receive the blue badge, the account must be “notable and active,” Twitter noted.
The company will identify verified accounts under specific categories such as government officials, companies, non-profits, news organisations, entertainers, sports teams, athletes and activists.
Twitter said it also may verify accounts that meet other standards such as being one of the top-followed accounts in the user’s country and having “off-Twitter notability,” which could be assessed through Google search trends, Wikipedia references or coverage in news outlets.
Twitter also made clear that they will strictly deny verification for accounts that have been locked out for violating rules in the last six months or accounts of individuals associated with hateful content or who have been found to have committed “gross human rights violations.”
Twitter can also deny or remove verification from certain qualified accounts that are found to be in repeated violation of the Twitter Rules, it said. These removals would not be automatic and would be assessed case by case.
“We recognise that there are many verified accounts on Twitter who should not be. We plan to start by automatically removing badges from accounts that are inactive or have incomplete profiles to help streamline our work and to expand this to include additional types of accounts over the course of 2021,” the blog post added.
Twitter aims to introduce the final policy on December 17. It also indicated plans for more ways for users to identify themselves with new account types and labels.
“But the blue verified badge isn’t the only way we are planning to distinguish accounts on Twitter. Heading into 2021, we’re committed to giving people more ways to identify themselves, such as new account types and labels,” Twitter stated.
