users can give the company feedback on the criteria for two weeks, then it plans to publish a final policy Dec. 17.Twitter has used a blue check mark to verify the identity of well-known and popular Twitter users for years — a way to distinguish real users and corporate accounts from potential impersonators. But the verification program has been confusing, and the company has offered little clarity around the criteria.
As part of the revamped verification process, Twitter said it may remove verification if a user’s account is dormant, or if it repeatedly breaks the company’s rules. Twitter recently confirmed that it will soon stop the special treatment U.S. President Donald Trump receives for his personal Twitter account. While he often violates Twitter’s rules, his tweets are considered newsworthy and thus he does not receive the same punishment other users might.
But verification was also exclusive, and just a small group of Twitter’s overall user base is verified. Over time the blue check mark came to represent a kind of implicit endorsement from the company. Twitter was criticized shortly before shutting the program down in 2017 for verifying known white supremacists, which users took as a validation of those users’ beliefs.
“Verification was meant to authenticate identity & voice but it is interpreted as an endorsement or an indicator of importance. We recognize that we have created this confusion and need to resolve it,” TwitterThe company is considering other types of changes that might help users quickly identify an account’s owner. Dorsey, for example, suggested atBloomberg
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