After revealing plans to overhaul its process last month with user feedback, Twitter says that it’s relaunching its verification process on January 20th, 2021.
The social network says that it gathered 22,000 survey responses in preparation to relaunch the program. Based on the feedback, Twitter users will no longer need a bio or header image to have a ‘complete’ profile, and minimum follower requirements are based on a region and not a country basis.
“This new 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 program is more equitable,” said Twitter in a press release regarding the announcement.
Further, categories have been reworked, with ‘News’ turning into ‘News and Journalists’ and ‘Sports’ now including ‘esports. Twitter says that it has plans to launch more categories in the future.
Existing Twitter users will have their verified account badges removed if the account is incomplete or inactive. For an account to be considered complete, it needs to have a verified email address and phone number attached to it, a profile image and a display name. Twitter says it will reach out to verified accounts that need to update something related to their profiles.
Other changes include removing the verified badge from users who violate Twitter’s rules and deceased users’ profiles. The company says that it has plans to launch memorialized accounts in the future.
In order to apply for verification, users will need to navigate to their account settings and select ‘Request Verification.’ The process then asks the user several questions and requires supporting materials to confirm your identity. Twitter says that its new verification process features a combination of automated and human reviews.
This seems like a good move on the social network’s part because the verification system it put on pause a few months ago was 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 and applying several times.
Source: Twitter
