important verification :
Twitter blue verification badge
Twitter has shared plans to apply its sought-after blue verification badge to accounts that share “credible updates” on COVID-19, announcing that the company is considering a new way to take public verification suggestions for handles that represent health organizations and reputable figures.
important verification
In an effort to make trustworthy information easily available on the platform, Twitter says it is working with partner institutions like the World Health Organization to identify accounts that should be verified.
How to Get Twitter verification
Verification would allow tweets from qualifying accounts to appear more prominently on the Twitter platform, thus making it easier for users to find credible news stories and updates from expert sources.
Twitter says accounts that represent health organizations and/or reputable figures should have the email address on their account associated with an authoritative organization or institution and their bio should reference (and link to) the institution they are associated with, and that the page they are linking to should include a reference back to their Twitter account.
Please also ensure your Twitter bio references (and links to) the institution you are associated with, and that the page you link to includes a reference back to your Twitter account. This helps us more quickly confirm that you are who you say you are.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 21, 2020
We’ll likely share a link to an intake form soon for experts to fill out to request verification too– just working on way to better separate likely noise from signal,” said Twitter product lead Kayvon Beykpour.
In 2016 Twitter, started to accept verification requests from the public however, it was later removed after Twitter faced backlash for verifying several controversial figures, including members of the so-called alt-right movement including Richard Spencer, Jason Kessler and Laura Loomer.
blue verification badge
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in 2018 the company plans to rollout verification to everyone who is able to verify facts about themselves in an aim to improve the “health” of its service, but has since remained quiet about the future of the blue verification badge.
Twitter Uses Its Blue-Checkmark System for Good and Streamlines Verification for Covid-19 Experts
Twitter has announced that it’s ramping up the verification process for its infamously arcane blue-checkmark system and prioritising qualified health professionals in the face of this ongoing pandemic.
This week, Twitter Support put out a call for accounts that are “providing credible updates around #COVID19,” the potentially deadly respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. The tweet also includes instructions on how accounts can best update their information to increase their likelihood of snagging a blue checkmark.
“[W]e are working with global public health authorities to identify experts and have already Verified hundreds of accounts…” the company tweeted Thursday.
It’s the latest step in Twitter’s larger initiative to crack down on the kinds of viral hoaxes and potentially dangerous misinformation that have circulated on several social media platforms as the novel coronavirus outbreak’s intensified. Earlier this week, the company announced that it had broadened its definition of harmful content to cover anything “that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information.”
These new rules cover everything from unverified rumours to coronavirus conspiracy theories to bogus cures like drinking bleach that you would hope people aren’t dumb enough to believe. But then again, this is the internet we’re talking about – a place where teenagers munch on tide pods and dip their balls in soy sauce.
Since its inception, Twitter’s blue checkmark has evolved into a vanity symbol since its inception – a coveted and occasionally controversial metric of social status only exacerbated by the site’s notoriously convoluted approval system that’s verified literal neo-Nazis. However, this push to verify health experts harkens back to what the badge system was created for: to highlight authentic sources in your neverending Twitter feed.
For health experts looking to become verified, Twitter said it’s prioritising accounts with emails connected to “an authoritative organisation or institution.” Additionally, the account’s bio should mention this institution, ideally with a link to an official page that also references back to the Twitter account (to help streamline Twitter’s process for confirming your identity). Further instructions are available here and here.
All these tips are applicable to the average user looking for a blue checkmark, just so you know. However, since Twitter said that its verification process for authentic covid-19 resources has been bottlenecked by incorrectly formatted information, the company decided to congregate these guidelines in a public service announcement.
And none too soon, since Google’s recently released website for covid-19 resources links to a carousel of Twitter accounts from health officials that tweet updated guidance regarding the outbreak.
In Thursday’s tweet, Twitter also said the company’s investigating methods of taking public suggestions for potential accounts to verify. However, its first priority is tackling suggestions “from global public health authorities and partners.”
