Twitter to enforce new account verification policy from January 2021

Twitter will begin enforcing its new policy for account verification on the platform starting January 20, 2021.

Twitter will also remove verification from inactive accounts or incomplete accounts from January.

The microblogging platform last month announced its plans to bring back its public verification program in 2021. Twitter had also shared its draft policy for verification seeking public feedback.

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Twitter had also said that select accounts such as inactive accounts or incomplete accounts will lose their verification badge as per the new policy.

“If your account is at risk of losing its verified badge, you’ll receive an automated email and an in-app notification informing you of what changes need to be made to avoid automatic removal of your blue verified badge,” Twitter said in a blog post.

“We are not planning to automatically remove the verified badge from inactive accounts of people who are no longer living, and are working on building a way to memorialise these accounts in 2021,” it said.

“Under our policy, we may also remove verification from accounts that are found to be in severe or repeated violation of the Twitter Rules. We will continue to evaluate such accounts on a case-by-case basis,” it added.

Twitter’s request for public feedback on its draft policy had received more than 22,000 survey responses. As per the feedback, Twitter has broadened the criteria for an account to be considered “complete”.

“We heard feedback that some of the criteria for a profile to be considered “complete” feels too restrictive, so we updated our definition to no longer require a profile bio or header image,” it said.

As per the updated policy, a complete account will be a Twitter account that contains either a verified email address or phone number, a profile image and a display name.

It has also updated its references to Wikipedia “to better align with the encyclopedia’s published standards for notability and article quality” apart from clarifying the titles of the “News” category to include “News and Journalists” and the “Sports” category to include “Sports and e-sports” to be more inclusive.

“We also added a reference in our “Entertainment” category to more clearly include digital content creators,” Twitter said.

Apart from this, it has also updated its criteria to measure the minimum follower count on a per-region basis. The social media major is also planning to explore more categories for verification.

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“Many of you suggested we add categories for verification including academics, scientists and religious leaders, and we plan to explore adding dedicated categories for these to the policy some time next year. Until then, any of these individuals may qualify under the “Activists, organisers, and other influential individuals” category,” it said.

How to apply for account verification

Twitter will relaunch public applications for verification in 2021 through a “new, self-serve application process that will be available on the Account Settings page on the web and in-app.”

Eligible users can apply for verification through the platform.

“The process will include asking applicants to select a category for their verified status, and confirming their identity via links and other supporting materials,” Twitter said.

“We plan to use both automated and human review processes,” it added.

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