Twitter’s revamped verification process is launching on January 20th, 2021, bringing back the ability to request a blue checkmark after Twitter pressed pause on the formal application process for more than three years. The new policy was refined with input from tens of thousands of user responses after Twitter confirmed in November it would be relaunching verification.
Some of the new changes include more lax profile information requirements to be eligible for verification, more granular and defined categories for verification badges, and new guidelines around when a verified account may lose its blue checkmark if inactive or if found in violation of Twitter’s policies.
thank you to everyone who shared feedback – we got over 22,000 responses to our survey which helped us make significant changes to the policy you see today
— B (@iamb) December 17, 2020
At some point next year, Twitter plans to introduce a way to label accounts that are either automated or once belonging to a person who has died. “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 memorialize these accounts in 2021,” reads Twitter’s blog post.
Twitter says “this will also come with an updated policy for memorialization and a new application flow to request the memorialization of an account,” while automated accounts will at some point in the future be differentiated from human-run ones “to make it easier for people to know what’s a bot and what’s not.” Twitter isn’t yet disclosing what these labels will look like or how proactively it will enforce its label requirement on bot accounts.
For human-run accounts, the company says as long as the account holder makes changes before January 20th to bring the account in line with its new verification requirements, there’s no risk of losing an existing badge. Those include ensuring an account has a verified email address or phone number, a profile image, and a display name. The company also plans to inform individuals at risk of losing their badge what they need to change to keep it before it takes action.
Twitter is reserving the right to remove verification. “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, and will make improvements in 2021 on the relationship between enforcement of our rules and verification,” the blog post continues. “As always, everyone on Twitter is subject to the Twitter Rules, and you can read more about our range of enforcement actions here.”
For users who want to apply to be verified, Twitter will launch a new “self-serve application process” within the app that will let applicants select a category for verification and confirming their identity. Twitter says it will use both human review and an automated system to wade through requests starting on January 20th.
