There has been a notable increase in accounts getting the blue tick on Twitter citing the company’s verification programme. However, the microblogging site takes full responsibility after it admitted to mistakenly verifying some fake accounts. When Twitter re-initiated the verification in May, it had noted that the accounts worthy of the blue tick should be “authentic, notable, and active.” It is said that the inauthentic accounts have now been removed under the manipulation and spam policy.
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In a statement, the company said, “We mistakenly approved the verification applications of a small number of inauthentic (fake) accounts,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. “We have now permanently suspended the accounts in question, and removed their verified badge, under our platform manipulation and spam policy.”
Six fake Twitter accounts suspended after they had been mistakenly verified. Some of the accounts include; @anlamislar, @aykacmis, @kayitlii. The six accounts were all made just 26 days ago and almost the same followers shared their accounts and didn’t tweet. Two of the accounts’ profile pictures were stock photos, while others could have been created by artificial intelligence.
In 2017, after being criticized for confusing and arbitrary, Twitter paused the verification program. At the time the checkmark was confused with an endorsement or sign of importance.
In the past, it has been observed that as these requests are reviewed by a human, the verification requests may require some time, “to ensure we review all your application material carefully and thoroughly.” Twitter had also observed that if a large number of requests for verification were to grow its queue until it is unable to honour the examination time, it would pause to accept new requests until its backlog has been removed.
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Twitter’s verification rules
Under the social media platform’s new verification rules, accounts must have been active in the last six months and fit one of several criteria: government, companies, brands and organizations, news outlets and journalists, entertainment, sports and gaming, activists, organisers and other influential individuals.
Some very basic requirements to get a blue tick include an active account within six months that should have complete info. Twitter says those who apply for the blue tick should have an account with a profile name and image, users must have logged into it in the last six months, and the account has a confirmed email address or phone number.
The social media platfprm also noted that those who apply for a verified badge should have never had 12-hour or 7-day lockouts in the past 12 months. The company specified the accounts that are not eligible to receive the checked badge and includes parody, newsfeeds, fan accounts, pets and fictional characters, coordinated hateful content accounts, and accounts that have infringed its platform handling and spam policies.
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