Twitter to relaunch 'blue tick' in early 2021

Rozana Spokesman

News, Business

Twitter will relaunch its account verification process early next year, whereby active and authentic user accounts can sport

Twitter

New Delhi: Twitter will relaunch its account verification process early next year, whereby active and authentic user accounts can sport the 'blue verified badge'.

Twitter had paused its public verification programme three years ago, after getting feedback that it felt arbitrary and confusing to many people.

"A year later, we deprioritised this work further to focus on protecting the integrity of the public conversation around critical moments like the 2020 US election," Twitter said in a blog post.

The microblogging platform is now restarting the process and has asked the public to share feedback on a draft of its new verification policy starting November 24 up to December 8, 2020.

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", it 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.

Twitter said it intends to expand the categories and criteria for verification significantly over the next year.

The social media giant said there is also a proposed criteria to automatically remove verification from an account, if the account is inactive or if the profile is incomplete.

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.