Twitter confirms plans to relaunch verification program soon

Twitter has confirmed it’s relaunching its verification program shortly.

In June, news leaked courtesy of Jane Manchun, a reverse-engineer known for discovering unreleased social network features, that Twitter is working on a new verification network for the social media network.

As it stands, Twitter’s verification system has been a bit of a mystery. For example, while I was able to get verified when I worked for Postmedia over half a decade ago, no one from the MobileSyrup team has secured the coveted blue checkmark despite writing for Canada’s largest technology publication.

We’re planning to relaunch verification in 2021, but first we want to hear from you.

Help us shape our approach to verification on Twitter by letting us know what you think. Take a look at our draft policy and submit your #VerificationFeedback here: https://t.co/0vmrpVtXGJ

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 24, 2020

Further, despite “pausing” its verification process back in 2017 after it was revealed Twitter verified Jason Kessler, the organizer of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one person died, thousands of people have still been verified over the last few years.

“…today, we’re sharing the start of our plans to revamp how people can identify themselves on Twitter, starting with verification and asking the public to share feedback on a draft of our new verification policy. Calling for public feedback has become an important part of our policy development process because we want to ensure that, as an open service, our rules reflect the voices of the people who use Twitter,” reads a quote from Twitter’s recent blog post about the relaunch of its verification program.

Twitter says it plans to launch a new public verification application process in early 2021, but that first, it needs to update its verification policy “with your help.” The social network says this process will better define what verification means, who is eligible and why some accounts may lose the coveted blue checkmark. Twitter asks users tag #VerificationFeedback in their tweets when discussing potential ideas for the process.

While the verification process still seems to be a work in progress, the company has identified the following six types of Twitter accounts as being eligible for verification:

• Government
• Companies, brands and non-profit organizations
• News
• Entertainment
• Sports
• Activists, organizers, and other influential individuals

Twitter says that the public feedback period starts today, November 24th, 2020, and continues until December 8th, 2020. The social network plans to introduce its final policy on December 17th, 2020.

Finally, Twitter also says that in 2021, it plans to give users other ways “to distinguish accounts on Twitter,” including new account types and labels.