Twitter to launch a new verification policy; it's about the blue ticks

Twitter had halted the formal verification request process on the platform, that coveted blue tick, for more than three years. But now, the platform is ready with its new renewed verification policy and will launch on January 20.

The new verification policy has been refined with user input after Twitter announced in November that they would relaunch verification in 2021.

However, January 20 is not when the verification request process restarts, so you cannot request verification at that time. The apps will open "sometime in early 2021," a Twitter spokesperson told The Verge.

With the new policy going into effect on January 20, Twitter will begin removing verification badges from accounts that don't meet its new requirements and also from inactive accounts.

New changes to Twitter's verification policy include looser profile information requirements to be eligible for that blue tick, more detailed and defined categories for verification badges, and new guidelines on when a verified account could lose its verified badge if it violates Twitter rules and policies.

The new categories include government officials, businesses, brands, and nonprofits. Twitter has already started verifying the accounts of individual government officials since it halted the official verification process. The new categories also cover media, journalists, entertainment figures, organizations, sports-related accounts, and "activists, organizers and other influencers." And Twitter has said that it is open to expanding its list of categories over time.

Twitter also plans to introduce a way to tag automated accounts and accounts that belong to someone who has passed away, sometime next year.

"We are not planning to automatically remove the verified badge from inactive accounts of people who are no longer living, and are working on building a way to memorialize these accounts in 2021," Twitter explained in a blog post.

Twitter further added that this new tag feature would bring an updated policy for memorialization and a new applications flow to request memorialization of the account. Also, automated accounts will be differentiated from human-managed ones sometime next year to make it easier for people to understand which is managed by a bot and which is not.

Twitter has yet to explain what these tags will look like or how proactive the platform will be in tagging requirements on bot accounts.

However, for human-managed accounts, Twitter says that as long as the account holder makes changes before January 20 to bring the account in line with the new verification policy, there is no risk of losing that verified badge.

Requirements for this to happen include making sure the account has a verified email address or phone number, a profile picture, and a display name. Twitter also plans to inform those at risk of losing their verified badge what they need to update to avoid losing it.

Of course, Twitter reserves the right to remove verification.

"Under our policy, we may also remove verification from accounts that are found to be in severe or repeated violation of the Twitter Rules. We will continue to evaluate such accounts on a case-by-case basis, and will make improvements in 2021 on the relationship between enforcement of our rules and verification," Twitter said.

For those who want to request verification, Twitter will launch a new "self-serve request process" within the app sometime in early 2021. This will allow applicants to select a category to verify and confirm their identity. Twitter says it will use both human review and an automated system to get around these requests.