Get ready to stake your case - after shutting down its account verification application process back in 2017, Twitter says that it's now looking to re-open applications for account verification which could give you a chance to get your own blue checkmark, making you infinitely more important than others on the platform.
But hang on - as you can see, the actual policy around what verification means isn't set in stone yet.
As Twitter notes, it's currently seeking feedback from the community as to what people expect the blue checkmark to represent, in order to revamp its previous, flawed process, which ended up being a mess due to the different ways that Twitter employees applied the qualifiers, and who should be approved and not, etc.
That's what lead to the initial pause on the public application process - because there was a level of confusion around what the blue checkmark meant, no one really knew who should be approved for one, who should not. That lead to Twitter verifying the profile of reported a white supremacist leader - despite, at that time, looking to take more action against hate speech. Because there was a level of uncertainty over whether the badge signified 'identity' or 'endorsement', Twitter shut the whole thing down, and while certain accounts have still been verified since then, public applications have been off the cards entirely for three years.
Now they could be coming back - but Twitter first needs to ensure that there's clear understanding about what verification actually means, both internally and externally.
