Twitter to bring back 'blue tick' in early 2021

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.

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Categories and criteria

To receive the blue badge, the account must be "notable and active", Twitter noted.

The six types of accounts that have been identified include Government; Companies, Brands and Non- Profit Organisations; News; Entertainment; Sports; Activists, Organisers, and Other Influential Individuals.

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.

"We recognise that there are many verified accounts on Twitter who should not be. We plan to start by automatically removing badges from accounts that are inactive or have incomplete profiles to help streamline our work and to expand this to include additional types of accounts over the course of 2021," the blog post added.

Twitter said this year that it had verified medical experts tweeting about #COVID19 and added account labels to identify candidates running for office.

"But the blue verified badge isn't the only way we are planning to distinguish accounts on Twitter. Heading into 2021, we're committed to giving people more ways to identify themselves, such as new account types and labels," Twitter said.