Twitter announces new policy for obtaining verified badges

Twitter will begin enforcing the updated verification policy on January 20, 2021, and start accepting requests for obtaining verified badges in the next year.

Twitter will also automatically remove verified badges from incomplete or inactive accounts. The Twitter verification policy includes changes such as:

• The minimum follower count requirement has been altered to a per-region basis from a per-country basis
• Criteria of a complete profile decreased down to an account that has a verified email address or phone number, a profile image, and a display name
• More dedicated categories will be added in the next year, for academics, scientists, and more, until then they will be classified under a broader category - Activists, organizers, and other influential individuals
• Updated references to Wikipedia to better align with the encyclopedias' published standards for notability and article quality
• Clarified titles of the 'News' category to include 'News and Journalists' and the 'Sports' category to include 'Sports and esports', to be more inclusive. A reference in the 'Entertainment' category to include digital content creators has also been added

Also Read: Twitter shares updates on brand safety measures on the platform

Incomplete or inactive accounts that are at risk of losing their verified badge will be notified via an automated email and an in-app notification to inform the user about the changes that need to be made. Accounts that make the changes before January 20, 2021, will not lose their verified badge.

Accounts of people who are no longer living will not lose their verified badge and Twitter is working on building a way to memorialize these accounts in 2021.

Accounts subjected to severe or repeated violation of the Twitter Rules will be at the risk of losing their verified badge, under the policy. Such accounts would be evaluated on a case per case basis.

How to apply for verification in 2021

The self-serve application process will be available on the Account Settings page on the web and in-app. Both automated and human review processes would be used to review the applications.

Applicants can complete the process by selecting a category for their verified status and confirming their identity via links and other supporting materials.

To measure the fairness of the verification process, the platform plans to give people the option to share demographic information after completing the new verification application.