After announcing an overhaul of the verification process late last year, Twitter is nearly ready to start accepting submissions. The company’s spent the past few months gathering feedback from the public to make sure its new approach doesn’t present any glaring issues, and this week announced that the option to apply for verification is finally starting to appear.
The return of this ability has been a long time coming, and Twitter has talked quite a bit about its desire to correct some oversights with its previous verification program. Based on the feedback, you’ll no longer need a bio or header image in order for your profile to be deemed complete, and minimum follower requirements will now be per-region rather than pre-country. Categories have also been clarified, with ‘News’ becoming ‘News and Journalists’ and ‘Sports’ now also including esports. More categories will also be explored in the near future, including those concerning academics and scientists.
For existing verified accounts, badges will be removed if an account has been inactive for too long or if it’s incomplete. In order for an account to be complete, it needs to have a verified email address or phone number attached to it, as well as a profile image and display name. Should your account be on the chopping block, you’ll get an email telling you which hoops you need to jump through.
Verified badges won’t be removed from deceased users’ profiles, and memorialized accounts are in the works Twitter hopes that the threat of verified badge removal for users who repeatedly violate the platform’s rules will be enough to improve their behavior. This will continue to be decided on a case-by-case basis.
Starting this week, users will begin seeing the option to apply for verification appear in the Account Settings tab. Those interested will be asked to answer questions and provide supporting materials to confirm their identity.
It could take from a few days to several weeks to hear back from Twitter about the status of your application, so don’t fret if you don’t get an immediate response. Twitter has also yet to make applications available to all users, and will be bringing the option to more and more over the next few weeks.
