Twitter: Microblogging site Twitter on Saturday removed and later restored the blue tick verification badge from the personal account of India’s Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, showing that the company would remove the badge regardless of the importance of the position that the person occupies if their account is not meeting the requirements for verification badge. The badge was removed briefly from the handle @MVenkaiahNaidu apparently due to “inactivity.” The official Twitter handle of the Indian Vice President, @VPSecretariat, continued to remain verified.
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Twitter’s verification badge lets other users know about the authenticity of an account that is made in public interest, and for that, the account needs to be notable, authentic as well as active. It helps users be sure of the identity of an account and the person running it.
The verification badge of Vice President Naidu’s personal handle had been removed as his account had been inactive. The company said that the account had not seen any activity since July 2020. However, after the badge was removed from VP’s personal handle, several Twitter users shared screenshots of accounts that continued to have a blue tick even though over a year had passed since they were active.
However, the verification badge of the handle has now been restored.
Since an account needs to be notable, active and authentic to be verified, as per the Twitter policy, the company holds the rights to remove the verification badge of an account without any notice if the account’s handle changes, the account becomes incomplete or inactive or the account holder is no longer at the position for which their account had been verified and is not able to meet requirements of verification after vacating the position either. Apart from this, verified accounts that the company finds to have repeatedly and severely violated Twitter’s Rules would result in an immediate suspension of the account.
