Twitter mid this week announced an application process for verified accounts (those bearing the blue badge, icon or tick after the user’s identity or name), a feature which lets people know that an account is of public interest and authentic. .
In the announcement, posted on the company’s blog on July 19, Twitter said that the objective of the move is “to help more people find great, high-quality accounts to follow, and for creators and influencers – no matter where they are in the world – to easily connect with a broader audience.”
“Today we announced that we’ve created an online application process for Twitter accounts to receive verified status. Verified accounts on Twitter allow people to identify key individuals and organizations on Twitter as authentic, and are denoted by a blue badge icon. An account may be verified if it is determined to be of public interest. Typically this includes accounts maintained by public figures and organizations in music, TV, film, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas,” states the announcement.
“We took a look back and found that the @CDCGov was one of the first Twitter accounts to be verified, in an effort to help citizens find authentic and accurate public health information straight from the source. Among the other first accounts to be verified include @NASAArmstrong,@KimKardashian, @Oprah, @MilwaukeePolice, @SF311, and @TonyHawk.”
Twitter verifies accounts belonging to those working in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business and other key interest areas.
For an account to be considered for verification, a criteria is followed and the account must meet certain requirements. The account must have a verified phone number; a confirmed email address; a bio; a profile photo; a header photo; a birthday (for accounts that are not company, brand, or organization accounts); a website and finally, the user must set the tweets set as ‘public’ and not ‘protected’ in the ‘Privacy settings’.
But just providing the above information won’t automatically lead Twitter to verify the specific account, as the applicant still has to show cause why the account needs to be verified, and bear the blue badge of validation.
“We’ll ask you to tell us why we should verify an account. If the account represents a person, we want to understand their impact in their field. If it represents a corporation or company, let us know their mission…When providing URLs to support your request, choose sites that help express the account holder’s newsworthiness or relevancy in their field,” Twitter states on its ‘Request to verify an account’ page.
If the applicant is still convinced that they meet the criteria, they can then proceed and submit a request to verify the specific account by filling out this form.
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