• Fellowships
  • Reports
  • Lab
  • Storyboard
    • Nieman Foundation at Harvard
    HOME
    About
    Subscribe
    Archives
              
    Foundation
    Reports
    Storyboard
    LATEST STORY
    Would you pay to be able to quit TikTok and Instagram? You’d be surprised how many would
    Business Models Mobile & Apps Audience & Social Aggregation & Discovery Reporting & Production
    ABOUT                    SUBSCRIBE
    May 20, 2021, 2:28 p.m.
    Audience & Social
    Twitter relieves current and former employees of annoying DMs by relaunching its verification process
    LINK: blog.twitter.com  ➚   |   Posted by: Hanaa' Tameez   |   May 20, 2021

    In the next few weeks, Twitter users will be able to apply to have their accounts verified directly in the app, Twitter announced Thursday. They’ll join the 361,000 Twitter users (about 0.1 of the company’s total user base) who are already verified.

    To be eligible for verification now, users must fall into one of the following categories — though the company said it will add “more categories later this year, such as those for scientists, academics, and religious leaders.”

    • Government
    • Companies, brands and organizations
    • News organizations and journalists
    • Entertainment
    • Sports and gaming
    • Activists, organizers, and other influential individuals

    About 361,000 Twitter users are verified today..

    “Once you submit your application, you can expect an emailed response from us within a few days, but this could take up to a few weeks depending on how many open applications are in our queue,” the announcement says. “If your application is approved, you’ll see the blue badge automatically on your profile. If you think we made a mistake, reapply 30 days after receiving our decision on your application.”

    Twitter first launched verified profiles in 2009 as a way to curb imposter accounts of celebrities and other public figures, The Verge noted. The platform then opened up verification to the public in 2016 but suspended it in 2017. Since then, Twitter has been manually verifying users, but the process was often unclear. It started verifying more users in 2020, if they were sharing factual information about the coronavirus pandemic or running for public office.

    No one is more excited by this announcement than current and former Twitter employees and social media managers, all of whom are periodically asked to be verified or what the process is to get a blue check.

    Read the full announcement here.

    Show tags
     
    What’s the best way to follow how the news is changing?
    Our daily email, with all the freshest future-of-journalism news.
    Prefer a once-a-week email? »
    The latest from Nieman Lab
    Would you pay to be able to quit TikTok and Instagram? You’d be surprised how many would
    Peter Martin
    BREAKING: The ways people hear about big news these days; “into a million pieces,” says source
    Joshua Benton
    In 1924, a magazine ran a contest: “Who is to pay for broadcasting and how?” A century later, we’re still asking the same question
    Julia Barton
    You’re more likely to believe fake news shared by someone you barely know than by your best friend
    Joshua Benton
    To find readers for longform investigations, Public Health Watch leans on partners and in-person work
    Sarah Scire
    Join the 60,000 who get the freshest future-of-journalism news in our daily email.
    Would you pay to be able to quit TikTok and Instagram? You’d be surprised how many would
    “The relationship he has uncovered is more like the co-dependence seen in a destructive relationship, or the way we relate to addictive products such as tobacco that we know are doing us harm.”
    BREAKING: The ways people hear about big news these days; “into a million pieces,” says source
    The New York Times and the Washington Post compete with meme accounts for the chance to be first with a big headline.
    In 1924, a magazine ran a contest: “Who is to pay for broadcasting and how?” A century later, we’re still asking the same question
    Radio Broadcast received close to a thousand entries to its contest — but ultimately rejected them all.
    Help advance the Nieman Foundation’s mission “to promote and elevate the standards of journalism” by making a donation.

    To promote and elevate the standards of journalism

    Covering thought leadership in journalism

    Pushing to the future of journalism

    Exploring the art and craft of story
    © 2024 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College  /  Some rights reserved
    Harvard Trademark Privacy Digital Accessibility
    Walter Lippmann House    One Francis Ave.    Cambridge, MA 02138    617 495 2237