Twitter Officially Launches Verified Accounts – Mere Mortals and Businesses Need To Wait Though
A few days back we had blogged about Twitter looking at releasing a verified accounts feature. The reason being calls from celebs like Kanye West and La Russa complaining about their fake accounts and wanting them removed (going to the extent of a lawsuit) and the general problem of Twitter impersonation all around. Today, Twitter has officially launched this feature and already many high profile Twitter accounts are carrying the verified account badge.
So Who will have This Badge of Authenticity?
According to the Twitter Help page on verification not many will
We’re starting with well-known accounts that have had problems with impersonation or identity confusion. (For example, well-known artists, athletes, actors, public officials, and public agencies). We may verify more accounts in the future, but because of the cost and time required, we’re only testing this feature with a small set of folks for the time being.
So no verification for you or me and according to Mashable even business can’t have one. I think perhaps Twitter would like to keep this a paid feature for corporate if it works out to scale in the future and hence they have restricted this to celebrities who in fact drive their growth.
There can be exceptions though, so if you are one of those popular people who are victims of impersonation you can reach twitter at http://twitter.com/account/verify_request and then fill the feedback form there to let them know of it.
When we blogged about Gul Panag being on Twitter there was a near furore on Tweetland wondering if she was real, and actress had to tweet of her authenticity many times before everyone decided to agree she’s real. However, there is a lot skepticism on various other celebs in India which seem fake yet real at the same time. Perhaps this feature can pull the curtains on some of the fake celeb accounts on Twitter as well.
And How does one identify Verified Accounts?
Through this badge:
Twitter Verified
- The ‘Verified Account’ badge will appear in the top-right portion of a user’s profile page just above the name, location and bio—as shown in the screenshot above.
- It will always have a badge followed by the words ‘Verified Account’
- If the verified account badge appears anywhere else on a user’s profile page (e.g. in the avatar or the background) it is not a verified account
- The verified account badge will also appear next to usernames in the Find People section
- The verified account badge will have the same color as shown above even if users customize the background of their profile page or change the color in the sidebar
I guess a few years downt he line having a verified badge on Twitter would be the day you can say you have arrived!
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