Twitter has confirmed that it will relaunch its verification system (the blue tick) after the reliable reverse engineering of Jane Manchun Wong uncovered evidence of it in a future build of the desktop version of the app:
Twitter is working on “Request Verification” 👀 (I’m not Twitter employee. I’m not tech support) pic.twitter.com/ED58QsD7kM
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) June 7, 2020
TechCrunch reported that Twitter had confirmed the evidence was correct. Users will, as before, have to go through a step by step process to request verification. This places a blue tick on a Twitter profile to verify the person or organisation is who they say they are.
Twitter has clearly taken its time to rehaul the process ever since it all but suspended it in 2017 after the company was criticised for verifying a prominent white supremacist.
Though the verification form was taken down from the site for anyone to use, Twitter continued to verify prominent political figures and others through undisclosed systems. It also verified prominent health officials and authorities during the coronavirus pandemic, showing that when it wants to, the blue tick can be useful to the public. It also stops prominent figures from being impersonated, and gives those with a tick better management of their potentially overwhelming notification situation.
Twitter has not said when the system will be officially reinstated but expect it to happen soon.
Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.