Have you ever been envious of someone’s little blue tick in Twitter? Have you ever thought to yourself if I could only get verified I know I would make it to the top of Twitter? Well, be jealous and worry no longer. As of today, Twitter has opened up their application process to become verified to anyone.
For those who don;t use Twitter, a verified account signifies that the user of that Twitter account is known to Twitter, and up until now was typically a known organisation or popular figure. Verified accounts also have to use an individual’s real or stage name
Using the new online application process, unfortunately, at least for now it doesn’t look like Twitter is intended on actually allow just little old you and I get verified, there are some caveats and restriction, firstly to get verified ou account must have:
- A verified phone number
- A confirmed email address
- A bio
- A profile photo
- A header photo
- A birthday (for accounts that are not company, brand, or organisationtion accounts)
- A website
- Tweets set as public in Tweet privacy settings
That’s not actually a hard list to achieve and ensures that you are both known to Twitter and have fully established you account. The real bummer is in the second set of requirements. In order to get verified Twitter evaluates your request and asks the following things:
- We’ll ask you to tell us why we should verify an account. If the account represents a person, we want to understand their impact in their field. If it represents a corporation or company, let us know their mission.
- When providing URLs to support your request, choose sites that help express the account holder’s newsworthiness or relevancy in their field.
- We may request that you scan and upload a legible copy of your government-issued ID (such as a passport or driver’s license) to confirm your identity.
This is the closest Twitter has ever got to a real (or known) names policy and if the process for becoming verified grows could well be a solution for Twitter’s issues with online abuse and harassment. If the feature becomes widely available perhaps those who are subject to such negative behaviour on Twitter could choose to only be visible to verified users. This could be a significant improvement to what can at times be a less than desirable place, seriously people it’s never ok to bully or harras, even online.
Are you rushing out to get verified? Let us know below.
